Sprayed again today, using a mix of Crittovit and Ramedit Combi, 60 grams of each per 18 litre pack, I managed to get thru 6 packs.
Grape Update
Montepulciano
Absolutely lots and lots of fruit, the berries are just starting to swell. My only concern is that the canopy is very dense, I definately left too many buds on when I pruned these.
Sangiovese
A middle section of the row has a lot of fruit that is starting to swell, but a lot of the vines have a small amount or no fruit. It looks to me like these might be better cane pruned. The canopy looks good though and is not too dense.
Pecorino
Reasonable quantity of fruit on both rows, although I think probably more on the cane pruned Row 4. Again the canopy is very dense on both cane and spur pruned rows, and probably needs more thinning.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
GRAPE UPDATE 23RD JUNE
Weather Update
For the first three weeks of June we have had very hot and dry weather, but on the 21st it poured for 24 hours, and the temeprature dropped from high 20's/early 30's down to well below 20 degrees. Its just starting to warm up again now, probably low to mid 20's today.
Montepulciano
Huge number of bunches, but no swelling yet
Sangiovese
Small number of bunches, some looking very large, and these grapes are just starting to swell now.
Pecorino Row 3
Small number of bunches, but no swelling yet
Pecorino Row 4
Large number of bunches, but no swelling yet
For the first three weeks of June we have had very hot and dry weather, but on the 21st it poured for 24 hours, and the temeprature dropped from high 20's/early 30's down to well below 20 degrees. Its just starting to warm up again now, probably low to mid 20's today.
Montepulciano
Huge number of bunches, but no swelling yet
Sangiovese
Small number of bunches, some looking very large, and these grapes are just starting to swell now.
Pecorino Row 3
Small number of bunches, but no swelling yet
Pecorino Row 4
Large number of bunches, but no swelling yet
Sunday, June 20, 2010
GRAPE UPDATE 20TH JUNE
The Vineyard is looking really promising at the moment. the Grapes have flowered, and we are in the early stages of fruit setting, most of the vines now have small bunches of early set grapes, a small number still have bunches of open flowers.
The initial fruit set on the Montepulciano looks huge, as does the last row of Pecorino, with the middle two rows, Sangiovese and Pecorino looking like the crop will be more modest.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
NEW SPRAYING REGIME
Sprayed again today, using a mix of Crittovit and Ramedit Combi, 60 grams of each per 18 litre pack, I managed to get thru 5 packs, thats 90 litres of spray on the Grapes. Just after I finished it rained but fortunately it was only a light shower !
Sunday, June 6, 2010
MORE SPRAYING
Sprayed the grapes again today, Sunday 6th June.
They are looking fine at the moment, big green leaves, lots of growth, no obvious problems. Sprayed with Mix of Ridomil (250 grams per 100 litres) and VISIR Pencotech (35-40 mls per 100 litres), all 4 rows, it took about two and a half hours. One spray pack (18 litres?) did 1 row, so in total sprayed around 72 litres.
They are looking fine at the moment, big green leaves, lots of growth, no obvious problems. Sprayed with Mix of Ridomil (250 grams per 100 litres) and VISIR Pencotech (35-40 mls per 100 litres), all 4 rows, it took about two and a half hours. One spray pack (18 litres?) did 1 row, so in total sprayed around 72 litres.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
VINEYARD WORK EARLY JUNE
Started work on the vineyard on the 30th May, it had been just over 3 weeks since my last visit, but wow, what a change. There was a great deal of growth on the vines, with shoots all over the place, and the vineyard looked generally very untidy and in desperate need of tending.
The growth on the vines in the last 3 weeks had been tremendous. After spending about 10 hours working in the vineyard to try and tidy it up, with plenty more work required, my first impressions on the different grapes are as follows;
1. Montepulciano
The least vigorous of all the vines, the growth was short (shoots up to 24 inches), stocky, but very dense and healthy. The grapes are showing a very good set of flowers, with flower clusters forming on each of the 4 buds. I think next season would be wiser to limit each arm to a maximum of 4 spurs, 4 buds each. The weight of some of the shoots had shifted the spurs so they were pointing down, and this took some effort to sort out, with some small shoot breakage, although it was time consuming it wasn't really a problem. Spent quite some time thinning out the canopy. These vines look good.
2. Sangiovese
Longer shoot growth than the Montepulciano, also very healthy looking. Shoots much longer, (2 - 3ft) but the growth not dense, showing a good amount of flowers, but nowhere near as much as the Montepulciano. These were quite easy to tie up and sort out, it was noticeable the great variation between different vines of the different quantity of flowers. The heaalthier looking vines in the bottom half of the vineyard had considerably less flowers that the other vines. LLots of big strong shoots with no flowers on at all, very strange, it is possible more buds will come, but surely not. The spurs seem to have shooted from the 3 & 4th bud only, and again on the stronger vines, the flower clusters only seem to be on shoots from the 4tf bud.
This maybe suggests that these vines would be better cane pruned.
3. Pecorino Row 3
These vines have demonstrated very vigorous growth, with very dense amount of very long shoots (2 -3 ft+). In the mid section of the row this proved to be a real problem, as the weight of the growth had pulled down the spurs into a tangled mess. This was very time consuming to sort out, and I had a great deal of breakage and loss of shoots on some of the vines. This row had least flowers of all the rows, and was the hardest to sort out. Clearly this should have been tackled around 10 days previously.
The vines in the bottom half of the vineyard had a small amount of flowers, with one or 2 vines having a considerable amount. Vines in the top half had very few, and on most of these vines the priority was to get the vine properly set up with to increase the chances of fruit next year as the trunk and cordons are still very immature.
4. Pecorino Row 4
These vines have demonstrated very vigorous growth, with very dense amount of long shoots. However, as the canes were tied, the shoots have grown fairly uniformly across the canapy. The 2 vines at the foot of the hill still look very sick, although they have some flowers. No idea what the problem is with these. Overall though, this row looks very healthy and has plentiful flowers, probably similar in number to the Montepulciano. This row was the easiest to sort out. These vines look good.
CONCLUSIONS ?
Montepulciano and Pecorino Row 4 look like the best vines.
Sangiovese would be better cane pruned (unless there is a late bud forming)
Tying up should have started a week to 10 days earlier
Cane Pruning looks better for the Pecorino, more flowers and easier to manage
There has been some sloppy pruning, too many buds left and too many pointing in the wrong direction
Next Steps
Need to finish tying up, and then some shoot thinning required in the denser canopies.
The growth on the vines in the last 3 weeks had been tremendous. After spending about 10 hours working in the vineyard to try and tidy it up, with plenty more work required, my first impressions on the different grapes are as follows;
1. Montepulciano
The least vigorous of all the vines, the growth was short (shoots up to 24 inches), stocky, but very dense and healthy. The grapes are showing a very good set of flowers, with flower clusters forming on each of the 4 buds. I think next season would be wiser to limit each arm to a maximum of 4 spurs, 4 buds each. The weight of some of the shoots had shifted the spurs so they were pointing down, and this took some effort to sort out, with some small shoot breakage, although it was time consuming it wasn't really a problem. Spent quite some time thinning out the canopy. These vines look good.
2. Sangiovese
Longer shoot growth than the Montepulciano, also very healthy looking. Shoots much longer, (2 - 3ft) but the growth not dense, showing a good amount of flowers, but nowhere near as much as the Montepulciano. These were quite easy to tie up and sort out, it was noticeable the great variation between different vines of the different quantity of flowers. The heaalthier looking vines in the bottom half of the vineyard had considerably less flowers that the other vines. LLots of big strong shoots with no flowers on at all, very strange, it is possible more buds will come, but surely not. The spurs seem to have shooted from the 3 & 4th bud only, and again on the stronger vines, the flower clusters only seem to be on shoots from the 4tf bud.
This maybe suggests that these vines would be better cane pruned.
3. Pecorino Row 3
These vines have demonstrated very vigorous growth, with very dense amount of very long shoots (2 -3 ft+). In the mid section of the row this proved to be a real problem, as the weight of the growth had pulled down the spurs into a tangled mess. This was very time consuming to sort out, and I had a great deal of breakage and loss of shoots on some of the vines. This row had least flowers of all the rows, and was the hardest to sort out. Clearly this should have been tackled around 10 days previously.
The vines in the bottom half of the vineyard had a small amount of flowers, with one or 2 vines having a considerable amount. Vines in the top half had very few, and on most of these vines the priority was to get the vine properly set up with to increase the chances of fruit next year as the trunk and cordons are still very immature.
4. Pecorino Row 4
These vines have demonstrated very vigorous growth, with very dense amount of long shoots. However, as the canes were tied, the shoots have grown fairly uniformly across the canapy. The 2 vines at the foot of the hill still look very sick, although they have some flowers. No idea what the problem is with these. Overall though, this row looks very healthy and has plentiful flowers, probably similar in number to the Montepulciano. This row was the easiest to sort out. These vines look good.
CONCLUSIONS ?
Montepulciano and Pecorino Row 4 look like the best vines.
Sangiovese would be better cane pruned (unless there is a late bud forming)
Tying up should have started a week to 10 days earlier
Cane Pruning looks better for the Pecorino, more flowers and easier to manage
There has been some sloppy pruning, too many buds left and too many pointing in the wrong direction
Next Steps
Need to finish tying up, and then some shoot thinning required in the denser canopies.
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