Monthly Archives: August 2011

Nature or Nurture

In vines as well as people there is a big debate about nature vs. nurture. Well in the case of Nona’s vineyard it is all nurture. The above picture is of the 29 Sauvignon blanc plants in the front yard. The picture below is of the “nursery” row (extra plants in case we need them) that are out in the vineyard. The ones in the vineyard are about 1.5’ tall and the ones by the house would be 5-6’ tall if I didn’t cut them. Amazing what a little weed cloth, bark and regular watering will do for plants!!!

Aug Work

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August and September are normally quiet times in the vineyard. However, this year I had to put up my fruiting and trellis wires. I’m also going to do a demonstration row to prevent weeds this winter and next year. Hope to do that next week….I’m sure you are all awaiting pictures. I’m probably going to do a combination of compost/mulch cardboard and Sonoma County Landfill mulch.

Wires – 109.5 hired
Spray – 5 hours Aug 4-8
Spray – 5 hours Aug 16-19
Aug 22 – 2 hours Mow
Aug 23 – 1.5 hours weed and trial with cardboard
Aug 24 – 2 hours spraying
Aug 25 – 2 hours spraying, 1 hour mulch
Aug 31 – 3 hours spraying
Sept 1 – 2 hours spraying

YTD

Doug Hired
January 62 hours 66
February 6 0
March 4 0
April 32 18
May 47 24
June 36 23 (2 hours from Clint/Linda!!!)
July 22 0
Aug 22 110
Sept 2 0

Total 233 241

Of the hired work……..90 hours were for weeding and 110 hours for the wires. If I can just figure out how to do less weeding, I’m going to be in better shape!

Trellis and Fruit Wires

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We are finally getting all of our fruit and trellis wires at Turtle Vines. I elected to have Rob’s guys install them as they would probably be a lot faster than I would be to install them. For the fruit wire we used 12 gauge and for the trellis wires I elected to put up 3 sets for a more finished look. Those are 14 gauge. We put wire crimps on one side and gripples on the other side.

They are coming out great and I hope that next year they work great for our expected 0.75 tons of Pinot noir.

Mildew!!!

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Well, I wasn’t watching close enough and I got mildew on the vines. Not a disaster but preventable as I should have been spraying on a more regular basis.

I had been looking at the vines and thought they were turning into trunks….but they were doing that and getting mildew. So……what I should have been doing more often, is spraying them with 1% oil. This will kill the mildew by smothering it. Don’t want to have this over the winter as it will harm next years crop.

Later this year or early next year I will buy a little tow behind sprayer for the lawn tractor and spray every week. It took me 16 trips of 4 gallons with a back pack sprayer…..4 hours total. A lot of work.