Recycling vineyard wastes

Fantastic news at this link:
Agrecovery introduces net recycling programme

There is now a way for growers to safely dispose of their bird netting as well pesticide containers and the like.

Side netting like this is quite common in a lot of growing areas. It's most effective in those places where the bird pressure isn't high.

This is a great addition to the recovery and recycling of irrigation tubing, which is also becoming more widepread.

Bird netting has a finite life, as even though the plastic is treated against the effects of UV radiation, it eventually will become more brittle and start to break. A lifespan of eight to ten years is possible, but often nets may not last this long if it's roughly handled. For example, if the vines grow up through the netting

It's very difficult to extract the shoots from the netting after harvest. This leads to tearing and a lot more stress on the net when it's taken up, so it may not last as long.

Having a viable option to recycle the nets is fantastic, and  I hope that it becomes available in all grape growing areas!

On and on about netting!

Ah, the netting saga continues!!

I spent the day putting netting on a rootstock trial, as we use the fruit for teaching, and also winemaking. The trial has been very interesting, as the rootstocks were chosen to represent a wide range of rootstock grapevine species, and the control is Chardonnay (Mendoza clone) grafted onto itself, as the graft union probably has an effect on the growth of the vine as well. Unfortunately, we don't have an ungrafted control in the block, as there wasn't room to include it as an eighth treatment (six different rootstocks and the control grafted Chardonnay).

Still, there are intriguing results, with the scion (Chardonnay) trunk circumference to rootstock trunk circumference ratios being quite different among the treatments. Curiously, the Chardonnay grafted onto itself is not resulting in a 1:1 ratio, but is actually the smallest - the scion trunk circumference is the much less than the rootstock's trunk circumference, even though they are the same plant material!

In any case, the netting, which is single over-the-row type netting that I've already put photos up of, is over the vines, and the three rows mostly clipped up. The worst of the bird damage was at the end of the rows that are closest to the Poplar tree windbreak. This is one of the reasons that viticulturists don't like having trees near the vineyard - they provide roosting areas and cover for birds!

Netting -What a pain, but we have little choice!

Okay, the nets are on! With such a small vineyard, it didn't take all that long, but it is the clipping of the nets that takes a lot of time, and thank goodness we had wonderful friends that could help!

In the photo above you might be able to see that we have netting that goes over a single row, with the edges joined at the bottom. We roll them up and clip them in place with curtain hooks.

It's essential that there are no gaps in the netting, even very small ones, as birds are very clever and will search for any access point. 

One problem is that sometimes the net is resting against clusters that stick out into the row - birds can sit on the net in these places and peck at the fruit. So outriggers, or something that pushes the netting out away from the fruit, are sometimes used. Most often, some sort of horizontal support is used to push apart the first foliage wire, which then keeps the netting from getting too close to the fruit. We haven't done this at our vineyard yet - we're seeing how it goes, and will try to tuck shoots out to push the nets. If necessary, we will be fabricating some sort of stick to push out the foliage wires, and thus the nets. However, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that!!

Hopefully, this is the only view of the grapes that the birds will get!!

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!!