Recent content by windsorcavintner

Has anyone tried spraying compost tea on grape leaves? If so, when do you apply it and how often? Does it matter? Can you apply it as often as you wish and start it whenever you please during the growing season? Might it help to spray it on days when there is a light rain and problems could...

Thanks for the replies! If we use the vineyard mulch, can we use that right up next to the base of the vines or should that be kept away as well? I think that we'd like to try some of both. We'd like to till the compost into the soil up to a few inches away from the vines. And, we'd like to...

Thanks for those comments. We went ahead and rototilled it today even though it might not be the best thing to do. We are going to try and smother the weeds with lots of leaves and compost. We might try and put down some cardboard first and then put the leaves and compost on top of that...

Sonoma Compost has a good deal on compost right now. It's 15% off. I was thinking of getting 10 cubic yards for our vineyard of about 100 vines. I'm wondering if that is about the right amount to use. I'm also wondering about where exactly to spread it. Should it go right up against the...

We were thinking of renting a rototiller to till the weeds into the soil. Does this sound like a good idea? Does anyone else do this? Is there any risk of harming the roots of the vines? We were thinking either a 5 or 9 hp tiller for our 100 or so vines would probably be a good size to use...

We made some really good wine last year and we just bottled it. We have about 100 bottles from our small hobby vineyard. It tastes great now. Some of the best wine we've ever tasted. My question is whether or now we should invest in a thermo eletric wine cooler for our wine or whether or...

What is skeeter pee?

Is there anything that can be made from the sediment at the bottom of your carboy? We have what looks like almost a full gallon of it. I've read that it is full of antioxidants and anti-bacterial properties. However, it's supposed to taste bitter and hard to swallow. Do you just compost it...

After about 11 days of fermenting, we moved our Merlot from fermentation containers (basically 20 gallon LDPE containers) to 5 gallon glass carboys. The hydrometer reading at the start showed about 25.5% sugar 1.11 At day 11, it showed very close to 1.000. We tasted the wine and it had a very...

We starting fermenting about 5 gallons of Pinot Noir about 10 days ago. The skins and seeds no longer started forming a cap yesterday and today there are fewer bubbles. Does this mean that I probably let the primary fermentation go too long before putting the wine into a carboy and getting an...

We have a small hobby vineyard with 120 vines. We've been making wine for the last two years since we moved into the house. I've learned a lot, but I still have many questions. One question that I have is whether or not it might be a good idea to harvest the grapes at different times. So...

Has anyone tried foliar compost tea application? It looks like it's going to rain here in Sonoma in a couple days. I'm wondering if I can spray with compost tea just after the rain stops and avoid having to use sulfur. What do you all think?