Mon 2 Apr 2007
With pruning behind us, bud break was to be our formal introduction to the vines at Hidden Acres. As expected, the annual warming trend in the weather triggered the awakening of these old gnarly vines.
After years of toiling on their own with minimal human intervention, we had hacked and sawed them back to something resembling a wine grape vineyard. You see, our goal for this year was simply to restore some order to this once prized place and gradually bring it back to its former glory.
While pruning I wondered how the vines would respond to their new caretakers. They pretty much had their run of the place for so long. Would some overreact in rebellion with wild shoot growth in all directions? Or would they all fall back in line as little manicured grape factories? Would some, overwhelmed by disease, simply not respond at all? Well, these questions are starting to be answered as we transition into the next phase of vineyard management.
Keeping the weeds down will be a chore. As you can see from the photos, the vineyard has not been strip-sprayed yet (spraying the weeds under the vines). Yesterday we were discussing the best approach to take in this regard. We missed the opportunity to spray before bud break so we’ll have to be very careful now. Our plan for the center of the rows will be to keep them mowed.
Regular dusting of the vines with sulphur will also need to commence. I will be purchasing a Dustin Mizer for the task. This handheld device is a powered by a hand crank that agitates sulphur particles and blows them out of a boom in and around the vines. By moving the air around the leaves, better coverage is achieved. We’ll see!
In the meantime, here are some more photographs from yesterday’s visit to the vineyard.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I have purcased a property that has a small vineyard that hasbeen unkept for aleast 5 year. I have trimed them back very hard and now am looking for other info that will help me retore the vineyard. do you have any sugestions about feeding or anything else I can do.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Hi Peter,
It’s very cool to hear from someone with the same sort of project we have going. I’m interested in hearing and maybe seeing a bit more of what you have going on.
We are not experts in vineyard management but we are learning very quickly with the help of experienced growers, books, internet resources, etc. That being said I’ll try to respond to your post.
On your feeding question. Without knowing where you are located I’d suggest contacting your county agricultural department for soil profiles in your area. There are a wide range of ammendments you can add to correct any soil issues you might have. My personal opinion is vines are tough and unless there is a critical soil issue you’re probably fine. Some things can be done in the winemaking process to correct for less than ideal grape chemistry. DAP is a prime example of this.
By “trimming them back very hard” do you mean they are pruned to the appropriate number of shoots to produce or that the canes are trimmed allowing you to move between the rows or something in between?
What we started with was a very overgrown vineyard that we pruned back to 5 spurs per cordon and 2 canes per spur where possible. There is a lot of disease in the vines so many of the plants have partial arms with a couple spurs.
On many vines we are attempting to train new cordons from existing canes for use either this year or next year depending on the size of the cane we are training. This will allow us to chop off the old, diseased cordons and return to a health vineyard.
Thats a quick and partial overview. I’d be happy to address any specific issues you have (that I’m qualified to answer).
Glen
April 19th, 2007 at 10:20 am
You might consider joining a local wine makers club if you have one in your area. Ours is in Placerville, CA and has been a great resource for purchasing grapes, learning wine making and understanding vineyard management. Many of our members have their own vineyards and have been a great resource for our work in Hidden Acres Vineyard.
Good Luck!
Madeline