Snow in April

Surprise snow on the proofing vineyard gate.

Connie's Post
The vines were freshly pruned, bleeding had begun, buds were set and spring stretched her arms all warm and bright to her children for an embrace. then, well--snow happened. this time snow happened on april 6th, a bit late in the season for southern maryland. gerald warned his wife there could be snow. ridiculous! thought the wife and then packed herself some very lightweight clothes. gerald, a firm believer in layers, packed boy1 and boy2 more clothes, for which the wife was grateful--as the snow blew in overnight to her surprise and her husband's ruefulness. how beautiful, though. the air was a bit warm, so there was the sound of snow melting throughout the day--but the snowy bits had stuck nicely to the vines and it was easy to score a nice image. easy for me, but gerald was concerned about the buds, as i had mentioned, they had started to break. so with journal in hand, gerald walked the proofing rows and recorded his findings. its now early may and while the buds, in my eyes seemed to have fared well, gerald says each bud is really three buds. if the primary bud grows, then the other two will not grow. however, if the primary bud is damaged, then one of the other two buds will grow to compensate. he will not be able to make an assessment until after inflourescence (the part of the shoot where the grapes will actually form.