Kentucky grape growers and winemakers will have an opportunity to see what's happening in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture's vineyard during the inaugural Viticulture Summer Field Day on July 7 at the UK Horticulture Research Farm in south Lexington. Even though many Kentucky grape growers were hit hard by the Easter freeze, UK viticulture and enology specialists have plenty of information to share and wine to sample from last year’s harvest. “We’ll be offering a tour of cultivar, rootstock and training systems,” said Kaan Kurtural, UK College of Agriculture viticulturalist. “We’ll also be demonstrating vineyard mechanization and spray equipment and have a structured, educational tasting of wine cultivars.” The day will kick off with registration at 10 a.m. and adjourn at 5 p.m. A barbeque lunch and folder packed with information from the day’s sessions is included in the registration price. Charles Smith of the Kentucky Vineyard Society will discuss the state of the industry. Other informative sessions include sampling fruit in the vineyard, crop estimation in the vineyard, canopy management in small vineyards, Japanese beetle management strategies, mechanical weed control and weed-free strip management by herbicides. UK Plant Pathologist John Hartman will give recommendations regarding summer grape diseases in a year with little or no crop. More sessions will focus on French-American hybrid trials and Vinifera clone trials, harvest parameters for white wine cultivars in the Midwest, and options for bird control in the vineyard. The field day will close out with a supervised educational tasting of Midwestern and UK Enology group wines, hosted by UK Enologist Tom Cottrell. Pre-registration is $25 for Kentucky Vineyard Society members and $50 for nonmembers. Payment is due by July 2 to the Kentucky Vineyard Society, 1500 Jones Nursery Road, Lexington, Ky., 40509. For more information contact KVS at 859-527-6635.