Lodinews.com

default avatar
Welcome to the site! Login or Signup below.
|
||
Logout|My Dashboard

Purpling Up

Print
Font Size:
Default font size
Larger font size

Posted: Friday, July 23, 2010 11:55 am | Updated: 12:01 pm, Fri Jul 23, 2010.

Ripening of Lodi winegrapes continues this week as purple begins to show on the first individual berries throughout local vineyards.

The color change called "veraison" is the visual signal that sugars are starting to replace sour grape acids. In fact, glucose is a component of the red color.

"White" grapes are also changing from light lime green to a more golden yellow-green, but is harder to notice.

This period of color change is one of the last windows of effective field work. Workers out in the vineyards are now cutting loose bunches of grapes that aren't where they should be or aren't evenly developing - even more important in a cool growing season like 2010, which is still lagging perhaps a week and a half or more behind average.

You may also see green leaves littering the vine rows. These were pulled off the north or east side of rows to get more sun and air exposure to the grape bunches in the "fruiting zone." The right amount of sun helps to better ripen the grapes and build color.

Air flow helps to discourage mildew that is likely to form toward the end of ripening when we get a brief September sprinkle with shorter days.

Rules of Conduct

  • 1 Use your real name. You must register with your full first and last name before you can comment. (And don't pretend you're someone else.)
  • 2 Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually oriented language.
  • 3 Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
  • 4 Be truthful. Don't lie about anyone or anything. Don't post unsubstantiated allegations, rumors or gossip that could harm the reputation of a person, company or organization.
  • 5 Be nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
  • 6 Stay on topic. Make sure your comments are about the story. Don't insult each other.
  • 7 Tell us if the discussion is getting out of hand. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
  • 8 Share what you know, and ask about what you don't.

Welcome to the discussion.

    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days. You will see 10 articles for free before being asked to register, and then you can view 10 additional articles by registering or logging in. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) free articles remaining ((%remaining_reg%) before being asked to register and (%remaining_sub%) before being asked to subscribe). Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) free articles remaining ((%remaining_reg%) before being asked to register and (%remaining_sub%) before being asked to subscribe). Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) total free articles remaining ((%remaining_reg%) before being asked to register and (%remaining_sub%) before being asked to subscribe). Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You have viewed (%viewed%) of your 20 free pages in 30 days. Please login or register at this time and enjoy the next (%remaining%) articles free of charge. After your 20 free articles, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. Because you have already viewed this article, you may view it again as many times as you would like without subtracting from your remaining free article views.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for registering on Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) remaining. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) remaining. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) remaining. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days. This is your last free article this period. On your next article we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.

    Poll

    Loading…

    Regional News

    Mailing List

    Subscribe to a mailing list to have daily news sent directly to your inbox.

    • News Updates

      Would you like to receive our daily news headlines? Sign up now!

    Manage Your Lists