Spring Budbreak!

Well, after a long grueling winter, the vine has shown budbreak! Little pink buds are popping out of each node on the 2 year Concord. I also ripped the bunny-ravaged vine I tried growing last year out of the ground and put in its place a Concord I got from Double A vineyards. By the chimney, I put in a seedless Concord. Both new concords have smaller buds appearing than the more mature vine.

This is the mature vine. Each node (about 4 inches away from each other) has buds, already showing three small leaves appearing. When I pruned the vine this winter, I put several of the cuttings of the small ends of the canes into some water to see how they would grow; up to two grape clusters are on each node! I would have never expected so many clusters on only a two year old vine. :) I'm pretty happy about it.

Here's one of the many buds that are showing some red leaves shooting out. Small clusters of grapes can be seen in between the leaves that are forming.

Here's the new Concord I got. I got the new vine in the mail and I was surprised at how heavy it was. I opened the wrapping, and found that several of the roots were over a foot and a half long. I had a bit of trouble digging a hole big enough to fit the roots in. (I'm not even upset. :) )

This is the seedless Concord. It came with a lot smaller of a root system and was a smaller sized vine compared to the regular Concord. I believe it is just because it is younger and less developed, though I have heard that seedless Concords have smaller vines/clusters/berry size.


Overall, I'm very satisfied with how the spring is turning out so far. We are getting lots of rain to help the new roots establish themselves after I planted them.