Tight clusters

Finally, after years of half-munched, half-dried out, half-absent grapes, we have a few clusters that are nice and dense. I don't care so much how they look as how they taste, but it's good to see our grapes are starting to look fuller and healthier (we think!)

Vines around Veraison

If I remember correctly, this may be one of the last seasonal Stylet Oil Sprays, so I'm giving 'em a good spray - well, only 1% concentration but very thorough coverage. Note to myself: rows 9-4 top done; rest throughout the week.

70% Veraison

It's early August and suddenly we have purple grapes! Seemed sudden but that might simply be my perception this year. We're at about 70%, which means 70% of the grapes on the hill are purple, the other 30% are still green or green-ish. We decided to give the grapes some water again yesterday (deep soaking), and will probably start reducing the amount they get from here out.

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.

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!)

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.

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).