THE warmer weather is great for the grapevines and hopefully the chance of further frosts has now passed, and we can dodge the summer storms that some say are ahead.
Many wine regions have seen losses from the frosts last month, but it’s looking like it has generally not affected the demand for red varieties, meaning large areas need to be removed before we get back into a balanced position.
Which is simply disappointing, and tough on the passionate hard-working growers.
Early varieties such as Chardonnay are starting to flower and the vines are looking pretty good so far.
Fertiliser is being fertigated through the irrigation system to stimulate good cane length and bunch development, and plenty of water is being applied to keep the vines happy.
The sprayer is getting plenty of work currently, with some interesting weather ahead.
We need to have a fungicide applied as close to the proposed weather event as possible to ensure all the new vine growth is covered.
With vines growing so quickly, vines are almost sprayed weekly.
I’ve seen plenty of snakes out and about this week and when observing a rather big one, I thought relocating it away from the vineyard was the best idea, but when I got close enough to it, the spanner, I had in my hand unfortunately fell onto its head, twice.
With some lizards in the vineyard suffering from hay fever, sneezing is a serious problem, especially when a flame some six inches long often launches from the mouth of the lizard. Because of the risk of fires starting in the warmer months, they must sneeze with their mouths shut, resulting in minor explosions with smoke emitting from nostrils, ears and the other end.
