University of Nebraska
Viticulture Program
|
|
|
|
Research 2001 A publication produced by the WINTER 2000-2001 -- A GOOD ONE? To paraphrase a famous quote from Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities", it was the best of winters; it was the worst of winters. One local meteorologist referred to the winter of 2000 - 2001 as the worst winter since 1915, which of course was the bad news, the "worst of winters". Extreme cold in the Fall and early Winter, combined with the length of the winter, followed by late Spring cold all combined to stress even some of the hardier grapevine cultivars. However, from a research standpoint, it was among the "best of winters", because it was a real "test winter". That is, it provided an excellent opportunity to observe the differences among cultivars and breeding lines ability to survive, grow and produce a crop following such stressful environmental changes. The following tables illustrate some of these differences and give an indication of their potential for some Nebraska locations. It is important to recognize that older, more well-established vines are often more capable of withstanding stressful conditions than are younger vines.
Weather Station A solar powered weather station was installed in 1998. Wind direction and speed, solar radiation, air and soil relative humidity, potential evapotranspiration are measured and electronically transmitted to a system at the University of Nebraska Lincoln Campus. Personnel form the UNL School of Natural Resources have provided installation and maintenance of the facility. Such weather and environmental information can be helpful in relating field response of plantings to weather events and microclimate phenomena. A few pertinent facts are presented in Table 1. Fencing A battery charged by solar power is employed to electrify a fencing system intended to exclude vertebrate pests especially deer. This system was installed by Mike Anderson, "Mike Anderson Tree Shearing", 2501 Surrey Ct, Lincoln, NE 68512, and similar to systems that he has installed in several Mid-west states. Results have been excellent (so far) with this system. You are invited to inspect this installation. Note the lowest wires were installed in 199 to discourage rabbits.
Table 1. Selected weather data from three sites for Winter, 2000-2001.
Grape Cultivar Trials A large number of genotypes of grapes have been planted, with the
following cultivars ("varieties")
* Damaged by rabbits and replanted the following year. Most of the North Field was planted in 1999, including the Rootstock Study,
The plantings are in three blocks of six vines per genotype; numbers of some genotypes are smaller because of limited availability of planting stock. The blocks are randomly arranged rather than having all blocks of a cultivar/genotype adjacent to those of the same kind. This arrangement helps account for variability that may be related to soil, slope or other site-related factors. Rows are ten feet apart; plant spacing in the row is eight feet. Trellis wires are at approximately 32 inches and 72 inches (six feet) in height. Line posts are 16 feet apart. "H-brace" end post assembly has been employed in the west field and conventional 60-degree angle end posts used in the north vineyard. Drip irrigation has been installed on the lower wire in the west vineyard. Emitters can deliver two liters per hour. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
% = See Rootstock Study notes. ___________________________________________________________________________
Several fruit crops have been suggested to have potential for value-added products, including for wine, juice, jams and jellies, salad dressings and other products. Tree fruits being evaluated include plums, cherries, Asian pears and European (conventional) pears. Small fruits include blackberries, raspberries, currants, and jostaberries (hybrids of black currant and gooseberry). Cultivars are listed below: Asian Pears: Hosui, Shinseiki* European Pears: Gourmet, Harrow Delight* Cherries: Stella, Surefire, Northstar Plums: Superior, Long John, Mt. Royal, Voyager, Castleton, Victory, NY 77.602.1, V70031 Blackberries: Illini Hardy, Navaho+, Chester+, Hull+ Raspberries: Boyne & Heritage (red), Royalty (purple), Jewell (black), Honey Queen (yellow) Currants: Crandell, Consort, Viola (black); Cascade, Tatran (red) Jostaberry: Red Josta Several of the brambles and currants began fruiting in 2000 and a few plums and pears are producing a small number of fruits this year. The potential of these fruits as "alternative crops" (value-added) will be discussed on the tour of this area.
* - Started as "bench grafts" so they are approximately two years behind the other tree fruits. + - Thornless cultivars
Table 3. Tree Fruit Observations.
Table 4. Currant and Blackberry Observations
y = Number surviving/Number planted (currants); 1 to 9 scale for blackberries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The InThe Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It is the policy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln not to discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, race, color, religion and marital status, veterans status, national or ethnic origin or sexual orientation.l Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It is the policy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln not to discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, race, color, religion and marital status, veterans status, national or ethnic origin or sexual orientation.
Send mail to
dmichel@unl.edu with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
