The weather has been dry and warm since bloom ended, the grass is going dormant, and the ground is as hard as concrete. The vines are healthy with lots of lush green foliage and shoots that are starting to lignify. The grape seeds are hardening, indicating we are at lag phase; a few days earlier than 2009, the earliest in recent years.
We have a goodly number of small- to moderate-sized clusters, roughly 2 cluster per shoot, with wings - if any - limited to the first cluster. Cluster shape, as well as size of berries, is variable. We have tight clusters with classic shape and uniform berry size (typical of the clusters that were pollinated during the near perfect conditions of the first week of bloom); less classic clusters with hens and chicks (pollinated as the perfect conditions began to change); and strange-shaped, loose clusters with fewer berries (resulting from the cloudy, showery weather during the last half of the bloom period).
Clone 114
Wadenswil Clone
