Saturday, July 25, 2009

Water log

Sounding like a broken record, or a gal that's gotten into her summertime groove, here's the update: gave the grapes 5 hrs drip yesterday morning, followed up with a 1.5% stylet oil spray, followed by another 2 hrs drip for good luck (and to address the fact that some leaves are looking yellow & dried up already).

I saw 2 grapes that were purple but I think they were outliers, no other signs of veraison.
of 7 plus halfway back on bottom of 7.

Friday, July 10, 2009

The Healthy Ones

Look! Some of our grapes are looking perfectly healthy - like these. We're trying to keep it that way - keeping powdery mildew at bay given the ideal temps for it to thrive (mid 80s). So this weekend was spent thoroughly spraying the vines with good ol' stylet oil. Most rows had enough vegetation cleared such that spray got through the canopy, but rows 4 and 5 have taken on a life of their own. Will spend next week gradually getting the leaves in the fruit zone pulled, and getting those laterals removed (again - seems like they keep on growing them!)


Thursday, July 9, 2009

Too Shattering?

Spent the morning continuing leaf pulling in prep for stylet oil spray. Our fruit set is good in some cases; other cases (like the ones below) looks like we're loosing more than we care to - 'excessive shatter'. Mostly happening on very top and bottom rows - so as a just-in-case measure gave them (everything but rows 4-6) 4 hrs drip irrigation.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Back at the Ranch

We're back from a week away, and despite the fact a young buck had an eye on our plastic fencing and the grapes within, it looks he didn't make it in. Whew! It is getting hot, and dry, so we gave the vines a good 4 hrs drip (all rows).