Frost damage

Farming isn't for sissies.

The frost-control fans worked the way they were supposed to on the mornings of April 17 and 18. 

It wasn't good enough. 

The vineyard got to 29.3 degrees at dawn on both days.

I took this photo of my Pinot Noirs on April 20 and sent it to my brother and sister. I was showing off. See how beautiful the vineyard is? Our father would be happy to see the farm productive, the weeds under control, everything ship-shape. I was proud.

Looking good

In the photo the four-year-old vines are pruned up and in position for their first year for a marketable harvest. The vines look great. A barely-visible cane wire is 31 inches  off the ground. The vines are pruned back to bare wood in the winter, and are attached in a cross shape and tied with green plastic tape to that wire. About every four inches a shoot points up and those will have grapes that will grow over the summer and hang down from the wire.  

Farming brings problems. One of them is spring frosts. My electronic thermometer tracks the temperature every hour.

My vineyard is especially susceptible to frosts. Medford is at about 1,600 feet in elevation; my farm is at 1,200 feet. Cold air settles and creeps past my farm along the ground toward the Rogue River. The damage from the frost did not show on April 20, but it was evident yesterday in the photos below.

Malbec

Malbec

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

I have two acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, too. I neglected to take photos of them because Cabernets bud out about two weeks later than the Malbecs and Pinot Noirs, and I don't think there is any damage. Cabernets are the latest to bud, latest to ripen, and latest to harvest.

The frost will almost certainly reduce crop yields. Grapes put out second buds, so there will be grapes, but they are later and less productive than the first buds. 

The Malbecs last year had a huge crop -- too heavy -- and I needed to drop -- i.e., cut and leave on the ground -- about half the crop a month before scheduled harvest. It is possible that the frost just means a smaller, better harvest, and less work removing excess fruit. But probably not. In general, spring frosts are bad. 

The Pinot Noirs are more delicate than Malbecs. They are a few days behind the Malbecs, and so far seem to be less damaged. We will see. I may see more damage in the days ahead.

The fans came on about 3 a.m. those two nights and again last night. Each night they stayed on for five hours. So far this season I have spent about $4,000 on propane.

Morning fog at 7:03 a.m.

I read yesterday news of frosts into the low 20s from New York, down through Pennsylvania and into Virginia and Maryland.  News stories quote farmers using the word "catastrophic." In the low 20s, nothing works to minimize crop damage.

I don't wish problems for East Coast grape growers. I consider that to be mean-spirited and bad luck. I do recognize that crop problems elsewhere reduce the overall supply of wine grapes and therefore my chance of selling grapes at a good price. I am not in direct competition with East Coast grape growers; people who want my wine would probably be looking for branded wine from the Rogue Valley. But at some level wine is wine, and wine is shippable, and a shortage or oversupply in one place affects the overall market. 

So much is out of my control.

I will plant melons from seed about May 10. They will be in the ground and protected from frost for a few days, but once they emerge a frost is sudden death for a melon plant. No use trying to rush the season. 

I don't grow melons to sell. I grow them out of sentiment and inertia. They paid for my college education. It was the job listed in the Voters Pamphlet in my 1980 campaigns for county commissioner: melon grower. I have been growing melons for 60 years, so I will keep doing it. A perfect vine-ripe melon is at least as rare and hard to produce as is an excellent wine. Rarer, in fact. Melons are perishable. When everything is done right there is a moment -- one day, maybe two -- when it is perfect. Then the moment passes.

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