Pinot Fully In Bloom
Checked out the progress of bloom today This is a cluster in the clone 115 Pinot. You can see every stage of bloom here. At the right of the photo you can see a few flowers with protective caps (calyptra) still covering them. Wine grapes have "perfect" flowers – both male and female parts – and can self-fertilize. More often than not this probably occurs when the calyptra is still covering the flower.
Most of the rest of the flowers in the photo appear to be fertilized – the ovules appear to be swelling and some stamens have fallen off.
I shot this photo from below the canopy to catch two clusters. The one on the left is at about the same state as the cluster in the photo above. The cluster on the right is a couple of days ahead of the one on the left – the ovules are clearly swollen to almost bb-sized. It is also good to see very little "shatter" – unfertilized ovules falling off their stems – so far.
3 Comments:
Hi John,
Great shots. Is it typical for your vines to be in bloom at this time of the year?
Hi Arthur:
We are in a cool spot that is frost-prone, and so usually don't prune until late February. The only year I have had bloom in May was 2006 – 2005, 2007 and now 2008 have been in June. I believe we are perhaps 2-weeks behind our "average" (if the term can have any meaning after only three full growing seasons).
Thanks, John.
It seemed from the pics that you were just approaching fruit set and I thought it may be later than most.
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