The first few years were the most critical for our vines in a cold climate such as Ottawa.

The young vines were protected for the first two years in plastic sleeves, purchased by  Dr Brian Pell for his winery in Peterborough. He owns the Pelegrin North Farm just north of the city and is president of COVA. The sleeves, made in Australia, were perforated to allow air circulation  and then filled with peat to a level of about half way up, as shown here.

After a few years and the vines have developed and strengthened, we progressed to burying the vines usually late in the year.

The beauty of our new training system is that the second wood is trained very low to the ground and burying is an easy process.

In addition, the soil at Algonquin is sandy loam, which is easy to manage, even in November/December after it has frozen.