Long Shadow

September 2026

With the autumnal equinox this month, we crossed the day-night rubicon. For that one day—Sept. 22—our daylight hours roughly equaled nighttime. Now, we’ll continue losing daylight every day until we arrive at the winter solstice on Dec. 21, the shortest day of the year.

The Farmers’ Almanac has a chart showing just how much the light will dwindle in your state over the next three months. For me in California, it’s 2.7 hours. We lose more light in September and October, then the darkening slows as the solstice approaches. Maybe that’s why it feels like that 2.7 hours is already gone!

For many grape growers, the equinox typically means harvest season—if Mother Nature allows. As crush began for eastern growers this month, a nor’easter battered the East Coast, possibly dampening prospects for an already light crop. And a deadly spring frost killed buds and whole vines from Ohio to Virginia earlier this year. There are growers sitting this harvest out. (See related story about fruit loss waivers in Virginia, below.)

But for others, harvest started with a bang. For California table grapes, harvest started on April 28, some 2.5 weeks early. Elsewhere in California, the winegrape harvest kicked off on June 30, “arguably the earliest start to harvest in living memory.” The raisin harvest also started early in late July. Harvest for the juice varieties—Concord and Niagara—in Washington State and the Lake Erie juice belt started in mid-September, more or less right on time.

Now, the end of the growing season is in sight. Indeed, for some it’s in the rearview. No matter how it played out, most would agree it’s almost never easy and it’s definitely never the same. For all the ag technologies that come to market (scroll down for a report on the 400+ players comprising today’s crop robotics landscape, for example), there will always be unknowns and quick pivots. Whether you’re growing grapes for fresh or dried consumption, or processing them into juice or wine, grape growing is farming first.

Grape research and development has done—and will continue to do—wonders for the process. But as the daylight wanes and the crews work to conquer one more harvest, it’s still the lengthening shadow of the farmer in the field that makes the difference.

Donnell Brown
President