GER102: Pruning the Vidal

We ended up at the vineyard this weekend, instead of my parents, as i have come down sick again. second weekend in a row, but it cant be helped. i slept all day yesterday and while i felt ok enough to go down to the farm today, we got there pretty late—around 1:30-noon. ger has scheduled the lot 11 pruning to be finished within 3 weekends, so its important to be at the vineyard. with the 2 acres to be planted in april, its important to use every weekend we may.

ger gave me a second lesson in pruning the 2 year old vidal in lot 11. up until this time, i had thought that the thicker canes were the ones to establish along the cordon wire, but that's not exactly so. some of the thicker canes had more than a hand's width between bud breaks. in those instances, ger had me look at a less thick cane that shot off from the thicker cane. if the buds were spaced tighter than the thicker cane, i was to clip off (oh boy) the thicker cane and train the thinner cane along the cordon. ger said that this would give us more fruit in less space with room to grow along the cordon for next year.

my head was too thick today to really feel like i would be making good decisions, so i made the best decision of the day. i told ger i would get the vines prepped for his final decision and training to the cordon wire. this meant i would choose which canes would stay and which canes could be snipped. if i couldn't decide between a thicker cane or a thinner cane, i would leave both and strip down the rest of the canes. it most likely wasn't the most time efficient way to work the pruning, but i felt better when i didn't have to struggle bending the vines to the wire—thats a bit nerve-wrecking when i'm feeling on top of my game.

uncle pete came over to check in and help us finish the last row. they had just returned from the west coast. he said they watched bottle shock on the plane—man, i wish that movie would show up on fios on-demand, but i don't think its gonna happen.

in the end we finished two rows, with a third of a row somewhat stripped. we'll work tomorrow, as well. i think we have 9 more rows to go. ger is in the wine room, racking the 08 and the boy1&2 have just finished roasting marshmellows. i planned on making bread pudding and working on kayleigh's sailor valentine, but i'm thinking maybe its just time for bed.

Taming New Frontiers

hazy early morning in what we refer to as lot 11, the vidal vineyard, or the east vineyard

Our frontier acre of vidal is looking a bit more tame—a sort of civilization of shoots is growing from the lunar landscape of the previous year. the frequent rain we have been receiving has been a blessing in making sure the tender vines make it through their first year, so we haven't had to worry about getting water up the big hill. its been a pretty wet season so far.

compounding the lack of blog posts has been our heavy scheduling of graduations, boy2's birthday, maryland vineyard field days/girl1's birthday, momma's summer grad class [information management!], and boy1 fracturing his toe in two places. our precious vineyard hours on the weekend have been getting chewed up from bleed over of our weekday life. west coast pete has arrived just in time to get the leaf canopy management under control.

here is the last image i have of work i've been able to contribute to the vineyard. right after the several weekend of weekday bleed overs, boy1 fractured his toe and was unable to go to the vineyard. yes, those are plastic ties. remember when i was part of the bamboo stake pounding brigade? now the vines are starting their disciplined life of training to stakes, wires, and trellising. i walked the vidal vineyard, twisting the plastic ties around the bamboo stakes and the first cordon wire.




that day gerald worked in the vineyard with me, reviewing the health of the leaves and training the tender shoots to the bamboo stakes with plastic tape. the plastic tape is gentle to the vines—it doesn't cut or tear into the vine—but holds them firmly to the stake so they have good support as they clamber up to the sky. boy2 and i will be happy to have boy1 able to be back in the vineyard again. boy2 will have his playmate again, and i will be able to participate in the vineyard more fully. right now, i've been limited to taking images and doing an occasional walk-thru. but its also been great hanging with the boys outside the vineyard, working on my coursework, and catching up on old hobbies.