About PWGN
The purpose of this website is to give commercial wine growers in Pennsylvania and the non-western wine states access to current and relevant viticulture news, information, and events that will enable them to grow high quality wine grapes. It will be a source of locally produced materials but also a portal to the amazing wealth of viticulture information available on the internet. The resources that reside on this site are carefully selected by the viticulture educator. It is central to our extension mission to discover and transfer practical research-based knowledge to the grape growing industry, but we also seek the best new ideas and technologies from innovative grower/practitioners. We hope you will find it useful and we welcome your comments and feedback. Thank you for visiting and please return often for more news and information.
I welcome your comments and suggestions about this website. Please send your ideas for future topics and how cooperative extension can help you and your vineyard to mlc12@psu.edu.
Read a brief summary of the Pennsylvania wine industry and look at PHOTOS of people and their vineyards.
These organizations have generously funded the PA Wine Grape Network:
- The Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences
- The Pennsylvania Wine Marketing and Research Program
Paul Milnes, owner of Sugar Hollow Vineyard in Tunkhannock (Endless Mountains) with viticulture extension educator Mark Chien on a cold winter day in the vineyard
Spotlight
Research Summit! The Pennsylvania Wine Marketing and Research Program is the marketing order to the Pennsylvania wine industry and uses a portion of its funds to support viticulture and enology research and extension. On May 23rd at Penn State, researchers from Penn State, Cornell and Virginia Tech will present their latest project results and recommendations. This is a chance for growers and wine makers to learn latest in viticulture and enology research! See the program. Click HERE for registration and information.
New vineyard owners, or those considering starting a vineyard have a lot of questions and need a lot of information. Start Farming is a USDA program directed at people who want to, well, start farming! A NEW GRAPE GROWER WORKSHOP is being offered at the Penn State Lehigh Valley campus in Allentown on June 13th, it's a full-day overview of what it takes to develop a commercial wine vineyard in the East. You can read a meeting brochure, see a full program or go directly to meeting registration.
NEW! View the most recent (May 14) Penn State Wine Grape Program viticulture e-newsletter.
NOTE: Speaker presentations from the March 21 Grape IPM workshop are now available!
Ever wonder what it takes to organize a successful extension meeting? Probably not, but it takes a village and technology that all works together to bring grape IPM information to wine growers in five areas of Pennsylvania. I think this is a great story that's worth reading...
Quick Resources
- Penn State Viticulture Information Resources List
- e-Viticulture (national online viticulture resources)
- 2012 NY-PA Pest Management Guidelines for Grapes
- Ohio Grape Production Guide (all chapters)
- Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Viticulture 101
- Penn State Extension Enology from Denise Gardner
Mark L. Chien
Viticulture Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension
Features
EVENTS!! Check out viticulture and enology meetings around the region!
Featured Article(s): Powdery mildew is numero uno when it comes to world-wide destructive grape diseases. Despite all of the tools growers have to combat it, it continues to be a plague upon the vineyards. No one knows PM better than Dr. Wayne Wilcox, Cornell University grape pathologist and he summarized his recent research and knowledge in an excellent article "Controlling Powdery Mildew" in Practical Winery and Vineyard magazine.
Insects and mites: there are a few resources such as the NY-PA grape pest guide, Wilcox disease update, and Greg Loeb's insect and mite article (6MB) that I consider essential reading for each new vintage. Dr. Loeb, entomologist at Cornell, has just published his update (in the Finger Lakes newsletter).
Featured Web Site(s): At a recent grape workshop Dr. Wendy McFadden-Smith introduced growers to her Ontario Grape IPM website. Dare I say that it both interesting and fun?! It's interactive and incredibly well developed. It includes IPM basics, ID keys, scouting tips, insects and mites, diseases and disorders, beneficials, weeds and herbicide injury, vine nutrition and even a quiz section! This is a terrific new resources for wine growers in Eastern N America.
Previous featured websites: Virginia Vineyards Association Resources, Linden Vineyards (see vintage summaries and article archives), Texas Winegrape Network, Cornell Research, VinoVic
Featured Extension Educators: we'll find one soon!
Previous article(s):
- Vineyard labor: Amish workers in the vineyard
- Cabernet Franc: a collection of articles and information about CF
- Here We Go Again 2012: tips for the new vintage
- Early Bud Break: a summary of bud break and using oil to delay it
- Notes from Long Island: great wines and people on the north and south forks
- Vine Size and Balance: this relationship may be the key to fine wines
- Biodynamic wines: notes from the Return to Terroir tasting in NYC
- Pinot Noir in Eastern N. America: a regional view of the grape and wines
- Finger Lakes Notes: great white wines, and some fine reds in a cool region
- Ontario wines: notes about the wine industry in Ontario
- Selection of 2011 ASEV-ES Abstracts: eastern viticulture research for growers
- Spotted Wing Drosophila: What we Learned in 2011: an update from Kathy Demchak
- Bird Management
- Remington Norman Notes: Viticulture notes from his new book about Burgundy
- It's a Long Road to an Identity: Blair Vineyard in the Lehigh Valley
- The Problem with Pinot: why is Pinot Noir so hard to grow well
- A Long Island Odyssey: viticulture and wine notes from a visit to Long Island
- Bibiana Guerra Viticulture Research Abstracts: current viticulture research translated for easy use
- A Wine Recovered: Brad Knapp saves a wine at Pinnacle Ridge Vineyard
- Bon Courage: 2011 vintage review by Jim Law at Linden Vineyards (call Mark Chien for a copy)
- A Viticultural Visit to Long Island: a tour of the best wine region in the East
- What's in Your Soil: vineyard soil and nutrition from Jodi Creasap-Gee at Cornell
- Post Harvest Checklist: what to do after harvest is over
- The Wines of Southwest Pennsylvania: a viticulture and wine making tour of SW PA
- A Morning with Daren Miller: wine growing and making in Bordeaux
- John Gladstones Wine Terroir and Climate Change Review: viticulture and the environment
- Wolpert and Yuste Viticulture Seminar: Jim Wolpert from UC Davis and Jesus Yuste from Spain
- The Vineyard at Grandview: A Developing Success Story: starting a new vineyard just right
- Vineyard Problems: Grapevine Yellows and Crown Gall: problems in eastern vineyards
- Crop Estimation: how to properly estimate and manage the grape crop
- Daniel Roberts: one of California's premier viticulture and soil consultants
- Plastic Viticulture: a novel ideal to protect vines from the elements
- Tents and Tunnels: protecting the grapes from frost, rain, freeze and getting them ripe
- Short Season Viticulture in Cool to Cold Climates: how to grow grapes in a cool to cold place
- Notes from British Columbia: wine growing on Vancouver Island and the inland desert
- Collateral Damage: the loss of USDA Viticulture Consortium is a major blow to regional research
- Grape Diversity is the Spice of Life: there's a grape for every taste