Netting finished.

We finished getting all the netting up and tied on this morning.  It took the entire 9500 ft bale roll almost exactly to cover all the plants with fruit. Next year we'll need two rolls.

I'm out of town tomorrow through Wed. so I'm planning to do another berry sample this coming Thurs (8/5).  Temps are gonna be hot - 100+ for the time being.

Final spray?

I sprayed again last night for what I hope might be the final time, at least for the Merlot.

25 gallon tank:
4 oz of Rally (1 packet)
1 lb Elevate (for Botrytis)
24 oz Sevin

I included sevin because I've have seen some new caterpillar activity and the little "grapevine fleas" (no idea what they are really called.

We need to really focus on getting netting up for the cab now.  When spraying last night, I noticed a couple of vines in section B that had almost entire clusters eaten, I assume by birds.

Chemistry

Heather Violett and Gary Greenfield came by to have a look at the vineyard today.  They had some great advice and also showed me how to start testing ripeness.  We took 100-berry samples of both the Merlot and the Cab F. and tested for Brix, pH, and Acid.

Merlot:  Brix 18, Acid 0.65
Cab F. Brix 16, Acid > 1

Targets are Brix 22-25, and Acid 0.3 ish (I forgot the exact number). This let me know we have a while yet before we pick, but as we knew, the Merlot are much closer than the Cab F.  We had no distilled water on hand, so an accurate pH will have to wait.

My new toys: Refractometer, pH meter, and Acid text kit :)

This also lets me know it's okay to spray again, which I should be doing tonight - but it just started raining :(

More Netting

We've been continuing to put up netting each evening, and just have two rows of Merlot left - the longest and the shortest.  I checked A1 - the short row that still has no net and sure enough, there is some evidence of bird damage to the few clusters that are up there.  The Merlot seem surprisingly ripe at this point.  The Cab, not so much.

A11 and A12 - the longest rows with netting so far.

Also, I found a total surprise in A13.  It looks like the nursery sent us one vine that's a white varietal.  I had no idea until just tonight.  I also have no idea what kind of grapes they are, but they are almost as ripe as the Merlot.

Surprise!  Chardonnay? Sauvignon Blanc?

I've taken the day off tomorrow to spend most of it working in the vineyard.  Want to finish netting on the Merlot, and mow everything for the most part.  I have Heather Violett and Gary Greenfield probably swinging by on Sunday to take a look, so I'm looking forward to getting their input and testing sugar for the first time!

July 16th 2010

We will be out of town this weekend, so we're trying to get as much netting up as possible before noon tomorrow.  So far, 8 rows done, so 5 more and the Merlot will be complete.  Then we'll start on the Cab F, which are about a week behind the Merlot in ripening up.

I also finished mowing and spraying roundup in section A tonight.

Took a few pictures of the Merlot:

Veraison Continues

Veraison has continued with the Merlot now probably 75%-80% completely colored.  The Cab F is all staring to turn as well, with about the same percentage of the clusters now light/pastel purple.

We spent the evening last night putting up netting.  Managed to get it up on both sides of A 2-5.  We are making a last swipe at canopy management/shaping as we go down each row, since it will be hard to get at the vines afterward.

Trying to get all that done ASAP, and also need to spray roundup again and mow down the rows!

Veraison!

The Merlot have hit veraison.  I hadn't been able to get up to section A for a few days because of the rain and when I went up to spray last night, I found them all turning colors!  The Cab F. are just showing signs of starting to turn as well. 

I checked with Heather to make sure it was good to spray still, and we opted to go with Abound again but without the sulphur so as to keep any unpleasantness out of the wine.  So I sprayed abound only, refilling the tank one time with an additional 8 gallons.

12 ounces for 24 gallons

 4 ounces for an additional 8 gallons



This morning, I started putting up the bale netting in A.  It think it's going to work out okay, though I'm still trying to figure out the best way to have it up and still be able to do some canopy management for a while longer.  I think I'm going to affix it to the top on both sides of each row for now, lettting the bottom hang loose. That will let me lift it up and do work underneath.  Then, when the birds/animals become a threat, it will be a simple matter to seal the bottom together.

Black Rot :(

So it looks like I've got some black rot issues, mainly with the Merlot.  Thankfully, it's limited in scope.  I'd estimate maybe 3% - 5% of all clusters are affected, and I just sprayed again, so hopefully it won't spread any further.  Last night, I started the process of removing infected berries and clusters.  After doing 5 rows, I only ended up with half a bucket (5-10 lbs), so that's a good thing.  Hopefully I can wrap up this process before the weekend is over.