Last week started with 2,500 vines in pots delivered to the property, and it ended with all of those vines in the ground! It has now been about a week and I finally got a chance to go out and check out the new plantings for myself.
A majority of the new vines were Pinot Noir, but there was also some Sauvignon Blanc. Some of the new vines have already sprouted leaves, however most of them have only buds. Soon all of the vines will be flourishing.
 |
| Pinot Noir vine that already has leaves |
 |
| Pinot Noir vine with buds |
Now that the new vines are in the ground, Chris will have to start work on the trellis. As it turns out, building the trellis is a very time consuming process with many steps. It all starts with the end posts. The 8' posts will be pounded into the ground sometime this week. Each post must be pounded down and secured with a thick wire and earth anchor. Once the posts are in the ground, the process of pulling and securing the many wires will begin. The first one to be added is the sprinkler wire; this is the wire that will secure the irrigation lines. The second is the fruiting wire. It will be used to help secure the young vines while they grow; later it will be used to hold up the fruit. The upper wires include the canopy wires (2 sets) and the wind wire. In addition to the wire, the irrigation will have to be extended to the new rows.
The pruning over winter resulted in a few vines being 'trunked' and most being 'two budded'. Trunking a vine is pruning the vine to allow fruit growth the following season. If the vine was thick enough at the end of last season, it was trunked. Those that were not thick enough yet were two budded. This pruning technique reduces the size of the vine to promote more root growth. These vines will not be allowed to produce fruit this year. The fruit will be cut off so that the energy is not wasted on ripening the grapes.
 |
| Trunked vine |
 |
| Two-budded vine |
 |
| A post with the lower set of canopy wires installed |
No comments:
Post a Comment