Thinning grape vines, reconsidered

Why thin?

Thinning presumably enhances the long-term health of the vine. However, I heard from a friend that the productive lifespan of St. Vincent vines is 7-10 years. Our vines (early summer, above) have been up since 2006, so what's the point of losing yield at this stage? Why not just go for it? Thinning would be like a couple in their 70's postponing a cruise until a better time later in life.

And then there's this, from Growing Grapes in Missouri, page 17, by Missouri State University-Mountain Grove:

St. Vincent is considered to be a chance hybrid of a French-American hybrid cultivar with an unknown parent. It is a red grape for wine with large berry size and small, loose clusters. It has high vigor and moderate to high degree of winter hardiness. The fruit matures late season. 

It does not require cluster thinning. 

Yield is high. The vine trains well to a cordon system with spur pruning. A good spray program is needed to control diseases. Loose clusters make it not susceptible to bunch rot. Wine quality is good. It is typically made into a dry, red wine, or used in blending.

Urban vineyard: Record harvest

This summer was a weird but prosperous time for the urban vineyard. We had a record harvest of 25 pounds (above), which will make 8-11 bottles, according to a range of estimates culled from the Internet.

First we got a lot of rain, then we got a little black rot:

I have never been a dedicated sprayer, so I blame myself for that. The arrival of the fungus came at the same general time when I thin the vines. I'm a reluctant thinner, and I usually wait much later than the recommended point in the season for doing so. This year, I confined my thinning to the diseased and destroyed clusters and hoped that the rot would not wipe out the whole crop.

Weirdly, black rot subsided, and the vines prospered:

In addition to the mercy of black rot, I see several reasons for the bounty:

1) Three of the five laggard vines began to yield in modest quantity this year, whereas they could not be counted to produce much of anything in past years.

2) During the weeks when we covered the vines with garden cover (known as the Shroud of St. Vincent, below), the weather was free of storms that could blow down the shroud. Because it remained intact, we had essentially no loss to birds. 

3) This year's thinning was less than in the past. Is thinning really necessary? For St. Vincent vines? See my subsequent post if you're interested. If not, click elsewhere. Cheers!

Wayne Shorter Quartet, 2010, Vienna

Fussing about Wayne Shorter

Because I don't spend a lot of time on the Internet except for stuff I really need, I have managed to miss the entire F*** Wayne Shorter fuss from earlier this year. A young saxophonist named Alex Hoffman propagated a social media utterance with this title. Typically, the post blew up and made him infamous. 

The online jazz writer Jonah Jonathan gave Hoffman an hourlong soapbox on Jonathan's platform, the Jazz Musician's Voice, In the intervierw, Hoffman rambles in a constipated tone about his aesthetic values and how Shorter falls short of them. The blather is available on YouTube under the title, Alex Hoffman: Why I think Wayne Shorter Sucks. Hoffman objects to the fact that members of Shorter's quartet occasionally yell at high points in their performance, and that Shorter uses harmony that Hoffman finds offensive.

Other people, such as Larry Blumenfeld, quickly came to Shorter's defense, as if he needed any.

This conflict between convention and innovation is not new in jazz or any other realm of art. But, seriously, Shorter's iconic Blue Note sides are half a century old now. And why do we need to hear another version of Giant Steps, just because somebody mastered it? 

Sad to see that innovation in jazz must come from a guy who's celebrating his 80th birthday this year. There are others, of course: Darcy James Argue, for one.

So many grapes on the vines

I have never seen so many grapes on these vines. Is it the rain, or maybe the maturity of the vines?

Rain, obviously, but we've had early rain in recent years, but never so many grapes. So, I'm thinking of the vines maturing. In any case, I'll have to thin excess grapes to avoid stressing the vines. I hate doing that ...

Post-Wayne Shorter concert stroll in Chicago

  

After the Wayne Shorter concert
earlier this month, we walked along
Michigan Avenue and found giant
boxes of radiant color, along with
a separate tower showing a
close-cropped face that changes
expression. Apparently this installation
has been in existence for nearly a
decade in Millennium Park.
Well, it was new to us. We also
noticed other glowing structures
farther up the street.

Japanese beetles? Not yet

Japanese beetle. University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.

On this day last year, I announced my first sighting of Japanese beetles. Today, no beetles are munching on my vines. Last year, I declared that I would pinch off the bugs rather than wrap the vines in garden netting to keep the bugs away. However, last year, I relented due to the numbers. If they do arrive this year, I will stand firm with the pinch-off approach. I have discovered, after several years of infestation, that the beetles munch the leaves but don't seem to harm the grapes. And when the bugs go away, the vines generate a modicum of new leaves.

If anyone sees them, please report here.