Spray

Finally got around to spraying stylet oil: did rows 2,3,4,7,8,9, plus the bottom side of row 5.  The rest of row 5 & all of 6 were just too overgrown and really needed some training & lateral removal, so I'll do that off & on today and plan on spraying them tomorrow.

Petiole Analysis, 2008 vs 2010

Exactly 2 years ago I took some petioles in (at bloom) to be analyzed by the local plant lab for mineral content.  And right now we're at about 80% bloom. So early this week I sampled from the random patches in the vineyard I did not do a foliar Zinc / Iron addition to find out how our soil amendment plan is doing.  Looks great!

Still need to do those fall Boron supplements (probably more aggressively), and Magnesium came up a bit low, otherwise looking quite good! Note that the units on this chart are in a random assortment of units, a true numbers jock worth her salt would have plotted as % of ideal to normalize the variety of units, ranging from ppm to % of weight. Maybe when she's done with client work she'll make the updates.

Why did I GIVE you water?!?

Countless times I've gotten the advice to provide just enough nutrients and water such that the shoots get to the top of your highest wire.

Well, once again, I've got ones that want to grow much more than that.  So, again afternoons have been spent pinching, trimming, and training all that growth and removing all the laterals.  Soon I'll give another good spray, as it's been almost 2 weeks and perfect PM growing temps.

I did give more water to the struggling rows - 1-2 & 7-9; although I believe their problem is more about lack of *sun* than lack of *water*.

More Stylet Oil + Foliar Iron & Zinc

No, really, that's it - did a quick spray before friends arrived for a weeklong visit.  Decided to give them 4 hrs of drip just to ensure continued growth.

Lateral Removal

Returned from a weeklong trip to the Pacific Northwest to a quasi-jungle! 

The vines are vigorously growing, so to manage that, and enable the next spray to get into the canopy, we spent hours pinching off laterals.  Then I reached out to friends that might be able to help, offering them dinner in exchange for an hour pinching off laterals.  Bryce & Lei were able to pitch in at the last minute and we got most rows under control. 

Then we dined on meat, home-grown bok choy, and ISO 9000 rice.  Yum!

Wines of the Columbia Gorge AVA

Tonight we're at the WineMaker conference in Stevenson, Washington (on the Columbia River Gorge).  We had a chance to taste a variety of wines from home winemakers and local vintners.  Winners (to me):
1st place: Cathedral Ridge Winery.  I especially liked the Zinfandel, Bruce was a fan of the Cab Sauvignon.  Best name goes to Bordheauxd Red (they are based on Hood River, OR after all)
2nd place: Strawberry wine, from Jason at Ancient Fire Wines in New Hampshire
3rd place: Rhubarb Wine, from a home winemaker in the Pacific Northwest.  I need to find the winemaker to thank him, then plant some rhubarb and try a batch.  Second time I've been impressed by rhubarb in a wine.

We learned lots today, which I'll hopefully summarize within the next few days.

2nd spray, 1st water of the year

 

The vines are looking good and healthy after their slow start this year.  Whew!  Just gave them their 2nd spray of the year: 1.5% stylet oil solution, plus 1 oz/gallon of iron & zinc supplement.  I managed to remember to omit the iron/zinc supplement from the segments I'll take petioles from, such that I get an accurate measurement when they get picked at fruit set.  Also gave the vines a token amount of water - just in case as we head out of town for about a week.