I absolutely promise that this will be the last vineyard blog for a while. It’s just that so much has been happening in these last few weeks and most of it has been bad. This means I have a real desire to share my problems and in so doing, hopefully, making myself feel a bit better.
I did try and err on the optimistic side in the last blog and that proved to be foolish. It’s true that much of what I said before still holds true but part of it does not. We won’t get any grapes at all this year. The reason being, and I can’t believe I’m going to write this again after all our past history, is the birds. We had some Solaris ripening against all the odds, but now they are gone. Eaten by the birds in the last week and a half.
A lesson for next year – birds will eat green / white grapes as well as the red ones. I assumed that, given a choice, they would ignore the white grapes especially given they’re not ripe yet. Wrong. This assumption meant that I hadn’t netted any of the vines. I thought I had time – wrong. Next year net earlier than you think you need to.
Much of this blog, in seeking to put a positive front on matters, is going to depend, for that optimism, on the ‘that’s a hard lesson learned’ dictum. I have to say right away that learning lessons in the vineyard isn’t fun mainly because you have to wait a year to correct your mistakes and then see if you’ve got the right answers. Not ideal.
In an effort to get more of our answers right, we had a visit from an agronomist last week who offered us a free visit because he was interested in what we are doing. He said, I don’t know much about vines, I did my PhD in strawberries. Still it’s a step in the right direction, isn’t it?
Of course he’ll be hoping that this ‘free’ visit leads to future consultations at £200 a site visit. If Nick and I can share this cost that won’t be too bad. And if it leads to a certain peace of mind then it will be money well-spent. In the short-term it’s free and, this being Yorkshire, that’s appealing.
In situ he confirmed his initial diagnosis of grey rot. He also thought it possible if (note the ‘if’) the fertiliser had been sprayed on a sunny day or in too great a concentration or both, then this might make the plant more susceptible to disease. So again take note for next year. He pointed out the rot so that I might know what to look for next year. This was helpful.
We have also agreed to prune more professionally in December rather than our usual, rather slack pruning in March / April. The thinking being that, along with a spray of fungicide, this is more likely to kill any disease that might be lurking. Oh and clear the vineyard of cuttings and burn them.
Oh and if we get the Beast from the East, like two years ago, we might freeze to death but it will be good for killing off any lingering disease. This latter part being beyond our control of course. Strange to wish for a bad winter though.
And still in the taking control column, I’ve ordered 50 new vines for next year and I know I’ve already told you that, so sorry for being repetitive. Mark (the agronomist) told me to spray weed-killer before the winter sets in (which is this week judging by the weather we’re having). Particularly around the young vines as they don’t like any competition. I will delegate this task to my man in the dales and he can do it at the same time as the last cut of the grass. That (the grass) always does well.
Actually the crap weather makes me feel a bit better about the lost Solaris on the grounds that they wouldn’t have ripened anyway even if the birds hadn’t eaten them. On such slender threads does a positive attitude hang in our vineyard world.
Mark did open up another can of worms in terms of a soil analysis report. I’ll give you the short version. I’ve just had one done (that’s below). He explained what the figures meant, which was helpful. He then said it wasn’t detailed enough and I needed another one, which wasn’t so helpful. It reminded me that about 4 years ago (that’s the one at the beginning of this blog) I’d had a more in-depth analysis, this is good, but couldn’t find the report – this is bad. Got it now.
The only figures I found in previous blogs was these numbers, 0 – 20 – 30 on the fertiliser bag. This took me some time to work out, with the help of Google, what these numbers meant. I know now. This was a good bit of learning. I also, after much effort, contacted the guy (another agronomist) who did it. The effort was bad (i.e. it took some time), but the fact he sent me a copy, was good. I’ve sent Mark a copy of this other report. This, to repeat myself, is the first one at the beginning of this blog, not the less-detailed one which is the second picture. If you follow. I await his comments.
At the very simplest level, (Potash 3, that’s above 2 – that’s good) I think that all this information tells me my soil is good and, in some ways, too good. You can apparently have soil that is too fertile for grapes. Ironically my winter-fertilising has contributed to this over-fertility. Short answer / conclusion is I don’t need to worry too much about my soil. Given the location below the moorland with its acidic soil, this is something of an achievement.
And on that partially positive note I will leave these vineyard blogs for a while. I don’t think there will be much happening in the next few weeks, but you never know.