Growing grapevines is a tricky compromise between growth and starvation. In one case, you want them to grow fast to develop good trunks and root systems. However, you don’t want them to get to big because later in life you want them to put all of their effort into the grapes and not into the plant. This is called a balanced vine and for premium vines, you want as small a plant as possible that will produce between 2-3 pounds of Pinot noir per vine. If you remember from last year, we picked a root stock that would not grow to vigorously, so we are set on that account.

Well, this is our “second leaf” and this is the time for getting a trunk the size of a pencil (at least). So, I’m going to fertilize at least twice this year to make sure I get enough of a trunk so in the “third leaf” we will get grapes. In baseball terms…..I’m going to “juice” the vines. Let’s hope it is enough.

For an organic vineyard I’m going to use liquid fish fertilizer. In order to make sure it gets to the root system, you have to run water thru the drip system, run the fertilizer and then run water again. This will drive the fertilizer to the roots.