Recent content by oregondabbler

I'm interested in learning how it works out. Good luck with your experiment.

I know a vineyard manager that uses a shotgun. The noise of the gun makes as big an impression on the birds as the death of their buddies. He says it works pretty well but would prefer netting if it was an option for him.

Yes, I cover them towards the end of the growing season, preferably before I see birds coming in for a meal. We remove the netting at harvest. It gets rolled up and put away under cover for the next year. This year the berries ripened early and I got the netting on after I saw a flock of wax...

I can't hazard a guess but maybe this will help: http://amarchinthevines.org/2015/08/23/turning-over-a-new-leaf/ I don't know if the photos below are accurate or not but some of the leaves shown match yours.

It sounds like you are cane pruning as opposed to spur pruning. A while back I read that you didn't want to leave the thickest canes, rather to select canes that are about the thickness of a pencil. For my vineyard, I select canes without laterals. Guidance from our extension agency (Oregon...

And a few views of the vineyard taken this morning as I was walking out the the barn. The last photo is one that I couldn't leave out -- dog playing in the vineyard

Photos of wine cellar-cabinet. Its not done yet, doors need to be installed as well as the AC and final wiring but its nearly there. A few wine bottle racks are installed and already stocked with wine.

Photos of the carboy cabinet. I got this up and running in July. The barn is not insulated and it got over a hundred (F) in the barn some days. The window AC installed in the r-21 insulated cabinet kept the wine at 60-62.

Finally, some time to spend with winemakers. The 2015 harvest went down last weekend. About 16 friends and family showed up for the harvest and post-harvest festivities. At this time, about 90 gallons of crushed pinot noir, 70 gallons of crushed Marshal Foch, 15 gallons of crushed and...

There is an old chestnut regarding the wine business: To make a little money in wine, start with a lot of money... See the movie, "American Wine Story", which profiles winemakers and vineyards across the US. Its coming to Pittsfield MA on May 2 if you near there or buy the movie at Amazon...

I'm assuming the vines are already established. If the vines are really vigorous I'd leave them at natural length. If the vines aren't vigorous then prune the cane back. I'm in the Willamette Valley too and use the same pruning method that you describe. I'm not familiar with cordon spur...

Early bud break here too (Oregon). We are about 4-6 weeks ahead of schedule. Hail is in the forecast tomorrow, followed by the return of cold weather. Buckle up and keep your hands inside the car ladies and gentlemen, this roller coaster is going to give everybody a memorable ride.

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken

Have you tested your soil? If not, wait until mid-summer and get some soil samples as well as leaf samples into a good lab. For fertilizer, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. With sandy soils, more fertilizer might be needed, with loamy clay soils maybe not. You can look up your...

Informally, I call it skeeter pee. For my Mother In Law, I don't want to break out the good stuff because she wouldn't appreciate it -- she likes Harvey's Bristol Cream and I don't keep that stuff on hand. She wouldn't drink anything called "pee" so I call Lon's creation "House Wine" or "Lemon...