MOST of the grape varieties are now going through the flowering stage, so it’s good to see some warmer weather to aid in the process.
Generally, the bunch numbers look okay but fruitfulness is normally down following a cooler growing season, such as the one we had last season.
The flowering stage is the best time to spray off fruit in those blocks which have little hope of the fruit being sold for a worthwhile price.
I have recently machine-pruned a couple of patches to lower the bunch numbers – and I still might decide to spray some fruit off as well.
Fortunately, the disease pressures of recent seasons have been much lower this time around, which is great.
Yes, some sprays are still being applied around the regions, but nowhere near as frantically as we saw last season.
Vines are also stepping up their water use, and with the warmer weather now seeming to be upon us, and a pretty steady amount of heat ahead, we can expect we will start seeing varieties ripening earlier than last year.
Speaking of stickybeaks and similar, well, my goodness gracious me, if I hear another so-called expert talking about the need to take our water for the environment, or for us to become carbon-neutral, and even for us to be more environmentally sustainable, I think I will eat my hat.
All of us are doing our best under some increasingly tough conditions, as opposed to those who are constructing some of these so-called reports – words without actual work are always the easy option.
I can assure you all, primary producers are a lot closer to being extinct than things that hop or swim and seriously, non-imported food production is in already in strife, and will be even worse off unless more of a rational, national approach is utilised.
Sigh.
Deep breath.
On a brighter note, the new silo art at Lake Boga looks bloody great.
And the creatures have been keen to see it.
Luckily when we go in, and other cars pull up beside us for a look, they only look at the silos and don’t see the myriad spiders looking out my windows, they miss the line-up of snails on the roof and bonnet of the good old ute and and barely notice the six rabbits in the back.
It’s also tennis season – you know that because the weather is getting hotter.
Here is a game played by those very fit, very athletic people with supreme ability. People who move around the court with gazelle-like movement.
For the record, I also play. You needn’t write this down, it’s just some off-the-record background, but I do not really fit into the above description.
Finally, I, like many others, can report a few more snakes are getting about, also looking for a drink with the warm weather.
I think all utes must have SDD – Snake Detection Devices – because when a ute nears a snake, it somehow automatically and very quickly revs up, seems to line the snake up with its wheels and skids when close to the snake.
