BIRDS BE GONE

This week we finally finished hedging and lateral shoot thinning the Cab Sauv vines and man did it look like a massacre down the rows after we finished. There were leaves, lateral shoots and secondary clusters all over the place but now the vines can breath and concentrate their carbohydrates on the fruit.

But wait the fun hasn't stopped, as we were finishing up the last three rows we started to see Robins feast on our Cab Sauv. We thought this was a little early for them to start attacking the grapes but with this dry weather we have been having it brought them out early.

So to protect our grapes and not run into the issue we had in 2007, I took a couple of hours off Monday from work so that we could get the nets on and protect our grapes. We started around 6:00 and had them on by 9:00. Man we are getting good at this, the first year it took us all day.

Now we need to provide our winemaker with a crop load estimate and monitor our grapes. I don't want to run in the bees like last year so we are going to try a couple of different things this year. I estimate we will harvest our Merlot around the middle to end of August and Cab Sauv. around the middle to end of September. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED!!!

Newest Pics

Cab Sauv

Cab Sauv

Merlot

Merlot

WE ARE BUSY!!

Sorry for the delay, but man we have been busy. OK, here what has happened since I posted last...

*Noticed we had Powdery and NOT Downey Mildew...OOOPS
*Sprayed JMS Stylet Oil (backpack on clusters and airblast on vines)
*Leaf Pulled entire vineyard (7/2-7/8)
*Sprayed Flint and Sevin (7/9)
*Hedged and cleared out lateral shoots on Merlot
*Verasion has set in on 75% of Merlot
*Netted Merlot (7/18)
*Sprayed Elite so that what Powdery does live doesn't spread.