The Bee’s Knees in the Vineyard
My absolute favorite time of year is spring! It’s a time of growth and emergence for all plants, and vineyards are certainly no different. It’s a dynamic season where vines come out of dormancy and begin to push shoots and leaves toward the sky, creating the most beautiful vineyard landscape.
When you think about most fruit and vegetable plants, they get their “fruit” of the season after being pollinated. Maybe you’re growing tomatoes or strawberries at home and know those need bees or other insects to pollinate and produce fruit.
Bees are such an important and common pollinator in crops like apples, bananas, blueberries, melons, peaches, potatoes, vanilla, almonds, coffee, and chocolate that many people assume vineyards need bees to pollinate.
So, you would think for grapes we would need a ton of bees at Kiepersol. But wine grapes are special (we knew they were)! A wine grapevine carries both the male and female parts required for successful pollination inside one plant.
At Kiepersol, we see grapevines forming flower caps (which confusingly look just like the tiny grape that forms after flowering) starting in April. The caps burst open to reveal tiny white flowers. It needs the right time, temperature, and hormonal signals from the plant, but once this flowering starts, it can be a quick two weeks during which you will be able to see flowers, and this is when viable pollen will fertilize itself.
Warm, dry weather and light breezes encourage pollen progression to the ovary of the plant. The pollen only needs to move a few millimeters, so it is very easy for pollination to occur in grapevine plants.
Sometimes bees visit the vines, but they are unnecessary for a successful crop in the vineyard.
While this important period can be problematic in some wine regions of the world—take for instance Burgundy, where high winds and excessive rain can blow the flowers off, causing small yields—East Texas typically has enough sunshine and dry periods for successful flowering and fruit set of grapes.
This year is no different, and our pollination has been successful, and the tiny grapes are already on the vines.
For more information on grape growing and wine production, our favorite resource is “Viticulture” by Stephen Skelton MW.
Kelly Doherty is the Branding and Marketing Director of Kiepersol. A photographer, graphic designer, and writer at heart, the winery and vineyard are the inspired backdrop for Kelly’s creative endeavors.
She holds a WSET Level 3 Award in Wines from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust and loves educating people about wine.
