VINEYARD VISIT EARLY MAY

I spent 4 days working pretty much full time in the Vineyard in early May, from Monday 3rd to Friday 8th May,.

Growth was already well under way, with shoots already around 12 inches long.

During this week I had David's help for a couple of the days, between us we;

-hand weeded around every grape
-cleared unwanted shoot growth from the trunks
-tied some of the longer shoot growth onto the wires
-strimmed between the aisles
-put down 1 cup of fertiliser on every vine
-sprayed a mix of Ridomil (250 grams per 100 litres) and VISIR Pencotech (35-40 mls per 100 litres)

The grapes all looked very healthy, the exception being the 2 vines at the foot of Row 4, the Pecorino, which looked very strange. Compared to the other vines they had virtually now growth, the leaves being small and cup shaped. Very odd !

This was about 2 weeks too late for the first spring vineyard visit, would have been better to start this in mid April.

GRAPE PRUNING

Started Pruning the vineyard in mid February, and finished on the 1st March.

MONTEPULCIANO AND SANGIOVESE

Pruned both these rows the same way, to 4 bud spurs, max 6 spurs per arm. Most arms had either 5 or 6 spurs.

PECORINO

ROW 3
Pruned to 6 bud spurs, 3 or 4 spurs per arm.

ROW 4
Pruned to 2 canes on each arm, 12 buds per cane.

This was probably about 2 full days work in total.