In my last post you may remember it was just at the time when some cold nights were forecast, with widespread frosts. Having had a bad experience with the fleece material I had decided to do away with it and let nature take its course. I needn’t have worried, because the frost had no effect on the vines, and as you can see from the picture below of one of the Phoenix vines, things are looking Good:
Unfortunately the Solaris vines still haven’t recovered from the fleece damage, and are only just beginning to show very vague signs of life, which considering they are the earliest variety and should be ahead of the Phoenix and Orion vines, is quite Bad:
And the Ugly? The second of the two Regent vines I planted last year seems to have died. It’s doing absolutely nothing, so will have to be replaced with something else:
To end on a positive note, I took some cuttings from the winter pruning in February and pushed them into the ground, and they all seem to be growing well. I have several of each type of vine, so looks like I won’t have a problem with replacing the Regent, and I may even think about trying to sell them. I’ll leave them in the ground for one growing season, and work out what to do with them this winter. This is how they look now:
Thanks for that explanation. The guide who showed me round the vineyard last Tuesday wasn’t quite so sure of her facts. She was keener to show me how she could ride her pink pedal bike ………….. 🙂
Good to see the cuttings doing so well, definitely more Good than Ugly on balance!