How low is low enough?

First of all, let me say how lucky I feel for my family and home to have made it through the Christchurch earthquake with so little effect - my best wishes go to those that were not so fortunate!

However, despite the 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the vines continue developing! And about 10 hours after it hit, we were out in the vineyard, finishing up the pruning! This because we're on a pretty warm site for Canterbury, and the buds were showing signs of pushing, making it more difficult to prune. At this stage, the buds start getting more susceptible to being rubbed off, so pulling brush can be a very time-consuming affair if they get too far along!

So once that was finished, I could put on a lime-sulfur spray, which should help control any carryover powdery mildew that could have been left as dormant hyphae on canes left for the coming season.

Powdery mildew infections on dormant canes - the dark blotches are areas where the fungal hyphae have gotten into the shoot tissue during the season

Then came the job of getting ready for spring frosts! This takes the form of mowing the cover crop as closely as possible, so that as much solar energy as possible can be absorbed during the day, and the also released at night. A higher growing cover crop can insulate the soil from gathering the sun's energy during the day, and also keep it from radiating that heat at night, causing an increased frost risk.

So as the grass was relatively high, I had to do a first pass, and then another cut with the mower.

Closeup of the first (upper third) and second pass (lower two-thirds) of the mower. You can see that I've cut the grass shorter than it's been in a while as it's more yellow than the grass in the background.

A longer view of the row (sorry for the "Batman" angle!). First pass on the right, and second on the left.

So we're still a ways away from budbreak (meaning green tissue visible on the buds), and therefore the most sensitive time for the shoots to freezing temperature, but even now they are starting to be more susceptible to frosts. I will be keeping the grass as short as possible over the next few months!!

Prepping for harvest

After dealing to the powdery mildew in our little vineyard, there were a few things that we needed to get ready in the preparation for eventual harvesting!

The first order of the day was to give the vineyard cover crop a good mow! For me, this is mainly a comfort thing, as it's not that nice to walk through the vineyard if the grass is very tall. This is especially true if the grass is damp from morning dew!

As well as this, the shoots needed a general tidy-up, as they had grown a bit since the last time we were through, and were getting a little tall. This is despite it being not that long ago that we did the shoot topping and positioning. We had some rain recently, and the vines were responding with a fresh spurt of growth.

Then, as the grapes were just starting to colour up (Pinot noir and Pinot meunier), it was time to get the nets on.

Timing of this is a bit tricky, as if you put the nets on too early, the vines grow shoots and tendrils through the netting, which makes it a lot harder to take the net off after harvest, and the vine-y bits cause the netting to tangle.

If you put the nets on too late, the birds discover how yummy the grapes are, and they'll pick off the grapes as they are colouring up. If you're not looking closely, you might wander through the vineyard and think that veraison is being delayed, but in reality, all the coloured berries are being picked off by the birds, leaving little clue that ripening is at hand! As a result, you can lose a lot of crop! Also, if the birds discover the grapes, they will tell their family and friends, and in a matter of hours, decimate the crop of a vineyard.

So in putting on nets, it's better to err on the side of being too early!!

So that's what we've done - just a few berries are starting to turn, so we put the nets on last weekend.

 

Side netting being attached to the upper foliage wires. These lucky workers are the front line to defense against birds damaging the fruit!

The job is not done, however! We still need to finish clipping the nets - that is, making sure there are no holes in the netting that birds can get through. And they're very clever at getting through spaces you wouldn't think they could!!