A Ragged Bunch

After Harvest, here is the whole family minus Dad, Brook and Elizabeth. I am sure Dad would be proud and happy we did this together.

From left, Riley Lieber, Jennifer Lieber, Chip Lieber, Joseph Lieber, Julia Bruce, Neal Bruce, Jeramie Bruce, Caroline Baldwin, Emory Lieber, and Tim Baldwin (and Lami Lieber).

Our harvest Day started early and was finally done at about 7:30 pm with the last load of grapes delivered to Don Tilmon of Tilmons Island Winery in Sudlersville. From our approximately 2.7 acres of vines ranging in age from their 4th year to vines in their 1st year, The yield was approximately 3.4 tons of Chardonnay. The final Brix reading was 22.

Harvest Day Gatherers

A great start and an historic moment by great friends helping on our first harvest. A never ending thank you to guest harvesters Jim Georgeson, IJ Profaci, Chuck Parry, Mike Dickinson, Maryann Ruehrmund, and Max Ruerhmund. Lunch Layout and kitchen cleanup by Linda Parry. All of these wonderful people set aside there Friday to give us much needed help. Again we can not truly express the extent of our thanks.

August Fruit

Grapes are looking great. First week of August and Brix reading was 13. We are keeping our fingers crossed, so far we have seen only minor damage to fungus or insects. Most recent spray included Pristine at the high rate and Carbaryl for Japanese Beetles. Interestingly the Japanese Beetles have been more prevalent at the southern corner of the vineyard and for the most part high in the vines

While spraying last week, I stopped and removed two bunches of fruit each in different locations that showed similar “purple” spots on the fruit. I have not seen more as of yet. I took a casual walk through the vineyard the other evening just to marvel at the work everyone has done. It really looks great.

Based on my walk and articles on fungi and diseases I have read like the one below, there are three comments I would make:
1. It is my opinion that we should incorporate an effort to remove more of our prunings from the vineyard as opposed to leaving them and mowing them under. As with many things in life, good housekeeping is the best effort we can make to help us fight the problems we will encounter in the vineyard. Removing all trimmings would come short of eliminating problems, however, as I am spraying, my mind meanders into worst case scenarios where I see the mower spewing and spreading spores that might otherwise be minimized by removing them immediately after our efforts.
2. Correct me if I misunderstood, but I understand that Mr. Tilmon did not suggest pruning more fruit from the vines. Basically let them grow. Based on what I saw the other evening, it is very clear that those vines that did not quite get pruned back to the ideal target of three vertical shoots in 12” of cordon have substantially more fruit than others. I would say in those areas the fruit is actually crowded. However, the berries and/or bunches in those areas are also not as well developed as those in vines that are pruned closer to the ideal. I see this as a potential detriment when we are sampling to reach the target of 22 brix. It will take longer for this fruit to reach that target and my understanding is that it may in some ways affect future quality in those vines as well.
3. As a curious observation, I saw that those vines in row 1 that were substantially “devastated” by the deer prior to our second application of deer deterrent now have some of the best looking fruit bunches on them. I am very curious to see what the quality of those bunches will be at the time of harvest.

As always my comments are solely intended for bettering our future as a vineyard and in no way do I mean to diminish the work everyone has done. The vineyard really does look great.

All the best,
Chip

Chip Lieber

From: Baldwin, Caroline (OPM)

This is info that we needed last year. I don’t know if we have a problem this year or not but we’ll keep our eyes open.


Caroline L. Baldwin, CCM

Week of May 12 - Thinning Vines

Progress this week included thinning vines. Last weekend, I understand that Tim completed row 1. Jennifer and I worked in rows 2, 3, & 4. 3 & 4 are complete and row 2 is approximately 1/2 complete. As a guestimate of time required, we took approximately 2.5 hours to work through 1/2 of a row per person. Since the growth was so heavy in these rows, I tended to work at the vine sitting on the ground and working from underneath the vines. From the top of the vines, I could not see what to remove without doing damage. Attempting to speed up work also caused mistakes so we kept at a fairly manageable pace which means lots more to get done.

I have not sprayed at all this week. Last spray of sulphur and PencoZeb was on May 5.

Monday May 5, 2008 3rd Spray

On Monday May 5, I mixed the equivalent of a 1 acre application of liquid sulphur and Pencozeb with 30 gallons of water in the blast sprayer. (1 gallon of liquid suphur, 4 lbs of PencoZeb) The weather was perfect for spraying with only a slight breeze (1-2 mph) out of the south southwest. This allowed me to spray while running the rows in both directions. This mix was applied with the sprayer set at 30 psi. I ran the tractor in 3rd gear at approximately 1500 rpm's. At this rate I was able to cover both sides of the rows. After discussion with Caroline, we determined that another equal spraying was due to obtain the recommended application for our 2 1/2 + acres. I re-installed the "Deer Tape" at both ends of the rows.

Vineyard Management Seminar at Piney Grove

Jack Steinmetz, Director of Economic Development for Kent County, and the Upper Shore Regional Council, arranged and held a Vineyard Management Seminar, Introducing Steve Mudd from the North Fork of Long Island, NY in an effort to determine interest in and establishment of a Vineyard Management Company that would service the upper shore region. Below is a picture taken by the wonderful Augustine Cook, and a press release written by Jack Steinmetz. The event was fantastic and we are very pleased to have had the opportunity for this to happen at Piney Grove Vineyard.

PRESS RELEASE

UPPER SHORE REGIONAL COUNCIL
VINEYARD MANAGEMENT COMPANY PROJECT
April 26, 2008 Seminar


Approximately sixty individuals attended a three-hour seminar on Saturday, April 26th, to learn more about starting a vineyard and using a Vineyard Management Company (VMC) to establish and maintain their vineyard. The Upper Shore Regional Council (USRC), which represents Queen Anne’s, Kent, and Cecil Counties, secured a matching grant from the Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO) to hire a vineyard industry consultant to help determine if a VMC would work in the region.

A VMC is a company which assists new vineyards in becoming established or existing vineyards in expanding, and no such organization currently exists in Maryland. Mr. Steven Mudd, President, Mudd Vineyards, Ltd., of Southold, New York, a nationally recognized vineyard management consultant, has contracted with USRC to conduct a study of the potential for a VMC in the region and prepare a business plan for a potential VMC and also a business plan for individuals who are considering starting a new vineyard utilizing the services of a VMC.

Saturday’s seminar was held at Piney Grove Vineyards (the Lieber Farm) in Chestertown, and the individuals in attendance were primarily regional land owners who were interested in establishing a vineyard, but who did not want to actually operate all or a part of the operation. A presentation was give by members of the Lieber, Baldwin, and Neal families, the vineyard owners, on what they had to do to re-establish and maintain their vineyard. A second presentation was provided by Mr. Al Cassinelli, of Cassinelli Vineyards, in Church Hill, MD, describing how he began his vineyard and winery operation. Lastly, Mr. Mudd presented the concept of a VMC, and described how he maintains over 500 acres of grapes in the North Fork of Long Island, NY. Of note, Mr. Mudd personally manages more acres of grapes in a fifty-mile area of Long Island, than are currently planted in the entire State of Maryland. Attendees will be indicating the degree of their potential interest in utilizing a VMC, and Mr. Mudd will utilize that data within his recommendations.

Both the Maryland Wineries Association and the Maryland Grape Growers Association are very excited about this USRC project, because of the potential it has to jump start badly needed wine-quality grape production in Maryland. Last year, for every ton of state-grown grapes that Maryland wineries used in their wine production, they had to import almost one and one-half tons from other states. Maryland needs more grapes, and a VMC can assist in filling that need.

Further information can be obtained by calling the USRC Vineyard Project Coordinators at the Kent County Economic Development Office at 410.778.5188.

April 27, 2008 2nd Spray

Showed Chip how to use the sprayer on Saturday. We added approximately 4# of Pencozeb and 1 gal. of sulfer to the 30 gal. spray tank and filled it up. These are the rates for 1 acre but since the shoots are so small we hope we are getting enough coverage by spraying from just one side which allows us to spray one tank for the whole 2.5 acres. Because of the drift Chip decided to wait until Sunday to spray. By Sunday morning the chemicals had congealed in the filter and the sprayer was clogged. Chip valved off the filter, removed and cleaned it. While the sprayer was sitting, additional gel like chemical oozed out slowly until the chemical finally began to run. Lesson, don't let sulfer and pencozeb sit in the tank overnight. Only mix it when you are ready to spray and then only mix what you will use in that spray.

Chip had about 7 gal. of product left when he finished the last row and we added Deer Stopper and a little more water to the tank. Deer Stopper is a 9:1 concentrate. Chip then sprayed this over a portion of the vineyard.

Chip please document where you sprayed this so we can keep an eye on its effectiveness.

Weed and Pest Management

Saturday the 19th of April:
The vineyard is 2.5+ acres with 19 rows of trellis however only 17 rows are planted. Caroline and I mixed 1 gallon of 'Surflan' and 24oz. 'Roundup' with 25 gallons of water for the 'environmist' applicator. The application rate of 6 was chosen, due to the syrup like quality of the 'Surflan', and a moderate speed of the 'Gator' was used. That being said only half of the expected amount of product was used up. Normally when just using 'Roundup' all 25 gallons of mix would have been used at completion of the 19 rows.

Sunday the 20th of April:
Shoot size was 1 to 2 inches with some longer. This is the first fungicide spray of the season. Based on the MD Coop Ext. Service fact sheet 848 Caroline and I mixed 4lbs. of 'Penncozeb' and 1 gallon of 'Sulphur' to 30 gallons of water for a 1 acre application. Due to a strong breeze, drift and the fact that the shoots are still very small, I chose to only apply on the upwind side of the rows. The blast sprayer has a tank mix feature which is always best to use. The application rate for a 1 acre pass (2.5 acres, 1 side only): all 17 planted rows on the same side is as follows; run the blast sprayer at full throttle, set the 'John Deere' throttle at 1900rpm. and run in 3rd gear. When about halfway done I generally gauge the amount of product used to amount of vineyard sprayed and throttle down to 1800rpm's. and achieve full coverage. When the foliage is more mature you would repeat this entire process and spray the other side of the 17 rows.

Pruning March of '08

Here is a picture of one of our Chardonnay vines after pruning March of '08. Now that we have finished the initial pruning in the vineyard, we are going back vine by vine to check for proper tying and support, and to catch anything we may have missed on the first go round.

White Powder on Vines & Buds

Here are the pictures we discussed. I am wondering if this is a residue from the salts coming from the moisture pushing out through the cut vines. If not, I have found no other reference to a similar condition in the references I have.
Any information we can find would be helpful.
Unfortunately these pictures are low quality from a camera phone. I will have to get a better camera to have handy in the vineyard

Roofing Guidance

All,
Sunday morning March 30, 2008, a good friend of mine was kind enough to meet me at Piney Grove to take a look at the various roof issues we have. Doug Hyatt, is a roofer out of the Philadelphia Main Line area and is an all around fantastic person. He did not come over to try to sell us anything, I asked him if could just give us his insights on what we have and what we should be looking towards. Below is a (not so brief) overview on our discussions. I will try hard not to interject any of my opinions into this as I am sure we all have our own opinions and we can evaluate his “guidance” with our own experience and opinions in mind.

Overview1. The main roof
A. His first reaction was that the roof is farther gone than I had described to him earlier.
B. He noted that the reason we are getting the degradation and curling on the main roof after only about 20 years +/- is most likely not because of a poor installation. At the time this roof was installed, the industry had started using cedar from “second growth” trees. Many people think of cedar shingles lasting 50 or more years because in earlier years, shingles were cut from old growth trees where the wood was much more stable. Unfortunately the industry learned fairly quickly that this made a big difference in the longevity of the installations. Our shingles are ½” machine cut shingles with a 5 ½” exposure. Apparently the exposure is controlled completely by the spacing and layout of the lathe underneath. The peek of our roof has an “overlapped” shingle as opposed to a cap shingle configuration. He noted that although the overlapped shingle is acceptable practice, he would highly recommend the cap shingles when we plan a new roof.
C. Moving forward, Doug is of the opinion that we can take temporary action to nurse it along at least another year, perhaps even another five years to give us time to truly evaluate all of the needs and priorities we have up against us. The first thing he advised us to do is to get underneath the roof during heavy rains to inspect and identify if and where any moisture might be coming through. He was fairly adamant that we not allow moisture to continue to infiltrate any longer than absolutely necessary. The temporary solutions include sliding pieces of aluminum underneath shingles where gaps are allowing moisture through.
D. As we look toward replacement in our priority listing, he noted that as a positive note, a new roof installation with wood shingles can be done in smaller parts as opposed to having to redo the whole at once. In order to extend the life of a wood shingle roof, the industry has moved to a thicker shingle. Doug’s recommendation is to go with the 5/8” taper cut shingle. The thicker shingle will typically out last the ½” machine cut, however he noted that because the wood is a natural product, there are not longevity warranties. He recommended contacting the Cedar shingle industry association that has great information on the materials available.
E. Jeramie and Neal brought out the sample of the plastic/rubber shingles that look like the cedar shingles and asked what his experience with them was. Doug noted that he has worked with similar products in the past. He has used the version that appears to be slate shingles. His comments on those were that they seem to be a fairly good product with a 50 year warranty; however, they are still fairly new and there is not very much information on their longevity yet. He did note as an example that real slate shingles over time will keep a fairly shiny appearance: When he had viewed a couple of roofs using this type of shingles after a year or two, they looked a bit like the texture of rubber tires. He said that as the roofs he was viewing were some of the earlier installations of the products; it is very possible that the manufacturers have made improvements to the products since. Again we just need to do our homework for this potential option. Doug noted that in order to install the plastic/rubber shingles, they would require that ½” plywood be installed as an underlayment over top of the existing lathe throughout to support them properly. (Note: he stated that ½” plywood is perfectly adequate as the lathe underneath has such close spacing, 5/8” plywood would be unnecessary.) Pricing in the end for this option would likely be a bit more than a wood roof.

2. Gutters:
A. The gutters on the house are galvanized steel. ( I think we all new that.)
B. Although we have some current leaks in the gutters, he cautioned us not to replace these gutters until the roof work is to be done. The gutters use a hanger system that attaches underneath the lower shingles and these hangers should be replaced when the roof work is done. Otherwise we will likely do damage to the lower shingles which will potentially cause other moisture issues.
C. Doug noted that the gutters can be repaired for now using a form of “pitch” (I can’t remember the name he used.)

3. Kitchen roof:
A. Speaks for itself as far as its condition, however, Doug noted that regardless of the appearance, if we do not see any leaks now, it is possible that this will last another year or more while we get a handle on our priorities.
B. He noted that ultimately the only “proper” installation for this low slope roof is metal roofing. However, we can get by as we have so far using the asphalt shingles; however, highly recommended using the self adhering “ice and water shield” underlayment throughout this roof.
C. His opinion is that if we have not experienced any water problems at the interface to the house, the flashing against the house is very likely in good shape and can also likely be reused. He noted to Neal that if necessary a new flashing could be cut in using a masonry blade and the flashing would be folded over and inserted into the notch cut in the masonry. He also noted that as an alternative, the newer caulks/sealants are so good that a flashing could be caulked. I indicated that I was more of the opinion that a caulk joint is very temporary. Doug noted that historically that is correct, however, newer products a very much better than before.


4. Garage Roof
A. These shingles are likely asbestos and very possibly will last for a very long time. There are a couple of pieces of broken or missing and he suggested we look carefully around the place to see if we can find any extras stashed for replacement. He noted that he would be happy to help fit pieces in if we can find them.
B. The gutter at the front of the garage sags to the middle. Just above this point is a fairly major hole in the fascia likely from squirrels getting into the attic space.


I hope this is helpful information and I will post this on our blog for reference as we research our options and discuss how we move forward.

Chip