Ironing the Vines

With all the rains, our cover crop of vetch has done quite well, to the extent that it's growing OVER some of the new growth. So this weekend I'm aiming to finish pulling cover crop from under the vines. While doing that, it makes sense to prep the soil (Iron and micro-nutrients) and also inspect and test irrigation.

Here's what one vine looks like after a winter of lots of water.

From there, I hand-pull only the area under each row. Then I'm left with a steep hillside.

I then level out the hillside directly under the drip line for each vine, add iron (this year am using Ironite, which includes many of the micronutrients the vines need), mix in some compost, and give them a good soaking.