Sunday, September 28, 2008

Exhausted Vines

Not only are we working on our wine, we're also helping our vines to recover and be ready for next year. We've learned, and are doing, the following:
(a) Immediately after picking, we gave the vines a good dose (6 gal) of water.
(b) We read that water is very important, as the roots are most active as the vine shuts down, so watered similarly once a week.
(c) Last spring we learned we were low in a variety of micronutrients, so we stirred in an organic soil additive that will be activated by the drip watering system and the coming rains. This we hope will get more Mg, Mn, Zn, and Fe to the vines - although spring is the better time for those. Come spring, I'm returning to this site - one of few I found that has a search index that will return organic supplements based on the chemical symbol: http://www.groworganic.com/default.html
(d) The one element that is key to apply in the fall is Boron, which we were VERY low on. Looks like we should dissolve about 1/2 oz per gallon and spread that solution over an entire row (10 vines).

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