I did keep some cuttings from all my varieties so I have a little flexibility this year. After tasting Marquette wine from 2 or 3 vineyards, it does not taste very good to me, bummer. These are my biggest and most numerous plants. So I think I might plant some of the Frontinac Gris cuttings next to some of the Marquette's and replace them over time. A co-worker wants some concord plants, and there may still be some room in my yard for a few more (somewhere!?).
I ended up leaving about 25-30 buds per plant on the ones that were big enough. I will see how they produce grape clusters, but I may cluster thin them if I need to if there are too many. This is only their 3rd year so far, so I can get a partial crop as all the literature says. With not many plants and my ability to be out among them every day, I will try to maybe thin some of the grapes off the clusters which may make the rest of the grapes on the clusters larger. I will also be able to trim off individual grapes that don't develop well or get damaged so that at harvest time, I will have near perfect clusters to pick. At least that is the plan, we will see how it works. Larger vineyards do not have the time to do this, but I will.
Some of the vines that are behind my big trees in the backyard are still at the 2 year stage because they have grown real slow due to lack of sun I think. My wife has hinted at cutting down one of them, and I am all for it! Doing this would definately help the growth of most of my plants. We will see.
Uncovered my Concord plants a little bit, but the ground was still frozen, so I will have to wait until it loosens up to get at them to prune. I did discover that there were 2 pots with cuttings in them from last year that I forgot about and there are TINY buds that have turned red starting to emerge. I hope it is not too early, it was kind of like a little greenhouse under the tarp, that is why they are turning already.
