Starting a new vineyard

[GSMChris]

Chris it’s been fun going back and following this thread from the beginning. What a crazy cool and fun process from start to finish. Can’t wait to hear how the wine turns out. Maybe i missed it but which nursery did you end up getting your vines from?
I saw that you mentioned Novavine. That’s where I got mine. My Syrah comes from Tablas Creek vineyard in Paso. It makes a very nice wine. Lots of dark earthy tannins. It took four years for it to age. Unfortunately as it was my first vintage I drank most of it before it made it to 4 years old. Haha.
Lesson learned. Give it time. It’ll get there.
Anyway, congratulations on making wine from your very own vineyard. I’ll keep checking back to see how things are going.

Hi Bizzidy - glad you enjoyed the thread. I haven’t been as diligent about keeping it up to date as I would like. Hopefully I’ll do better next year.

I ended up getting the vines from Sunridge. Many commercial growers in this area recommended them because of their dependable quality and service. I was really happy with their range of available clone and rootstock combinations and was able to get what I needed. They also delivered on time which was important given my planting party scheme - always had the right number of plants on hand for the planned groups. I looked at nova vine at the recommendation of Tablas Creek but had a hard time getting phone calls returned from the sales rep.

Like you, I love Syrah. I ordered the 470 clone on 3309 rootstock. This rootstock was somewhat unusual for the Paso Robles area but I have Acidic soil which had a pH in the 5.5 to 5.8 range prior to amending with limestone. The first Syrah wine is in the middle of MLF now but I suspect I’ll have a hard time waiting to drink that one.

 

[GSMChris]

Sorry to hear about the bird problem, I suppose there isn’t much to do about them. We’re lucky not to have that problem, there was a flock of thousands of blackbirds that flew by today., luckily we pick in September.

Well, there is a guy in town who offers a rent a hawk service. He stops by once a week during bird season with his hawk and sets it loose on the starlings. He claims that once the hawk nails 2 or 3, the whole flock makes a run for it and won’t come back for several days. It is really tempting!!!

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Well, there is a guy in town who offers a rent a hawk service. He stops by once a week during bird season with his hawk and sets it loose on the starlings. He claims that once the hawk nails 2 or 3, the whole flock makes a run for it and won’t come back for several days. It is really tempting!!!

I use a combination of netting and owl decoys. I get the decoys with the moving head, a slight breeze and the head looks a different direction. I have 3. I also move them around the vineyard every couple of days and never have them close together. I've not found a hawk yet with a moving head.

 

[GSMChris]

Well, it’s been a while since I posted. Just not much happening in the vineyard. I did go ahead and plant a cover crop.

I went with an alternative row format one row is two types of clover (crimson and subterranean) and then the next row is a blend of legumes (bell’s beans and field peas) grasses (barley and winter rye) and also threw in some daikon radish seeds to hopefully gets some depth.

Unfortunately the top 13 aisles got planted in early November and then things went a little sideways with my schedule so the downhill 12 aisles didn’t get planted until mid December. As a result, the top got a huge head start over the downhill section. Not sure that it will ever catch up.

January and February have just been rain storm after rain storm. Nothing for you guys back east but a lot for us in a little amount of time. Cover crop did a good job stopping erosion vs last year but it is still really soft through most of the vineyard.

Today was pruning day. With help from two friends, we knocked it out in seven hours. Well, almost out - there are a dozen of so plastic bags full of cuttings to be gathered up and dumped in the yard waste. Since that will fill the bin for three weeks, I’m not in a huge hurry to gather them up.

Here is a photo of the mixed aisle

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Well, it’s been a while since I posted. Just not much happening in the vineyard. I did go ahead and plant a cover crop.

I went with an alternative row format one row is two types of clover (crimson and subterranean) and then the next row is a blend of legumes (bell’s beans and field peas) grasses (barley and winter rye) and also threw in some daikon radish seeds to hopefully gets some depth.

Unfortunately the top 13 aisles got planted in early November and then things went a little sideways with my schedule so the downhill 12 aisles didn’t get planted until mid December. As a result, the top got a huge head start over the downhill section. Not sure that it will ever catch up.

January and February have just been rain storm after rain storm. Nothing for you guys back east but a lot for us in a little amount of time. Cover crop did a good job stopping erosion vs last year but it is still really soft through most of the vineyard.

Today was pruning day. With help from two

I don’t do cover crops they take a lot of effort and for me would not really achieve anything.

we have had so much rain that it’s causing fungal issues with fruit trees and my vegetable garden. Though the benefit of it is that 2024 is going to be a really good year I think it’s going to be a bigger harvest than 2023 and will produce better wines years with a lot of early rain historically produce better grape harvests.

 

[GSMChris]

And here is a not great picture of a clover aisle. Try zooming it




Note that the dandelions interspersed with the grape vines weren’t planted - they simply represent another project to be tackled!!

 

[GSMChris]

I don’t do cover crops they take a lot of effort and for me would not really achieve anything.

we have had so much rain that it’s causing fungal issues with fruit trees and my vegetable garden. Though the benefit of it is that 2024 is going to be a really good year I think it’s going to be a bigger harvest than 2023 and will produce better wines years with a lot of early rain historically produce better grape harvests.

It’s interesting how we live perhaps 30 miles apart yet have such different soils and climates. I need to cover crop for erosion control, nitrogen fixation, and, most of all, adding organic mass to the soil. Yet I completely understand why you wouldn’t see the benefit given your conditions.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

It’s interesting how we live perhaps 30 miles apart yet have such different soils and climates. I need to cover crop for erosion control, nitrogen fixation, and, most of all, adding organic mass to the soil. Yet I completely understand why you wouldn’t see the benefit given your conditions.

I could add compost, cover crops and organic matter for like 20 years straight and see it wash right out and provide an organic matter content of 1.80% lol. Soil is wacky I know places around you that have 8,500 ppm of calcium in the soil basically self buffering ph wise lol

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Well, it’s been a while since I posted. Just not much happening in the vineyard. I did go ahead and plant a cover crop.

I went with an alternative row format one row is two types of clover (crimson and subterranean) and then the next row is a blend of legumes (bell’s beans and field peas) grasses (barley and winter rye) and also threw in some daikon radish seeds to hopefully gets some depth.

Unfortunately the top 13 aisles got planted in early November and then things went a little sideways with my schedule so the downhill 12 aisles didn’t get planted until mid December. As a result, the top got a huge head start over the downhill section. Not sure that it will ever catch up.

January and February have just been rain storm after rain storm. Nothing for you guys back east but a lot for us in a little amount of time. Cover crop did a good job stopping erosion vs last year but it is still really soft through most of the vineyard.

Today was pruning day. With help from two friends, we knocked it out in seven hours. Well, almost out - there are a dozen of so plastic bags full of cuttings to be gathered up and dumped in the yard waste. Since that will fill the bin for three weeks, I’m not in a huge hurry to gather them up.

Here is a photo of the mixed aisle

View attachment 110520

Looks like mistletoe in that tree in the background..

 

[GSMChris]

Looks like mistletoe in that tree in the background..

Yup - it’s 2-3 feet across - just a big globe.

 

[Snafflebit]

And here is a not great picture of a clover aisle. Try zooming it


View attachment 110521

Note that the dandelions interspersed with the grape vines weren’t planted - they simply represent another project to be tackled!!

@GSMChris do you tie the canes to the catch wires? Maybe what you are growing Is well behaved. I grow Cab Sauvignon on something similar and all the canes flop over toward the downhill side because they are so heavy. I even use catch clips.

 

[GSMChris]

For the most part, I haven't had to thus far - but this is only our third leaf. Our canopy was a little sparse last year - I am hoping for a more robust set of canes this year.

I did tie a few up which were exceptional healthy and I thought I might want them as spare cordons - so I tied them to grow along the lower catch wire rather than up to the high wire. Several of them did in fact end up as replacements when we did the pruning last weekend - bigger and with better positions than the originals.

 

[GSMChris]

We’ve had nice weather the last few days - even hit 80 yesterday. As a result, bud break is here. Saturday there was one Grenache vine with visible leaves (picture below). Yesterday, there were too many too count. All of the varietals except the Mourvèdre had at least one vine with visible leaves. So it all begins again!

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Heck yeah, mine are pretty far into canopy development if I keep on top of things I think I’m going to get a good harvest.

 

[GSMChris]

Well, how things change in a month!

I started mowing the cover crop yesterday- look at the difference between this picture and the one in post 204. In many places the crop is higher that the cordons - e.g. more than 36 inches!

 

[ibglowin]

15" of rain over the Winter will do that!

Well, how things change in a month!

I started mowing the cover crop yesterday- look at the difference between this picture and the one in post 204. In many places the crop is higher that the cordons - e.g. more than 36 inches!



View attachment 111420

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Well, how things change in a month!

I started mowing the cover crop yesterday- look at the difference between this picture and the one in post 204. In many places the crop is higher that the cordons - e.g. more than 36 inches!



View attachment 111420

Looks nice and healthy lol.

 

[GSMChris]

Well, it took three days but the vineyard is all mowed. I mowed each section twice - the first time in the morning at four inches - as high as the mower would go. I’d then have lunch and take care of other stuff while the plants stood back up again. Then, around 2, I’d mow again at 2.5 inches. Cutting twice definitely helped with reducing rock strikes and mower stall outs while also producing a much cleaner Final Cut. All of the green matter will be left on the aisles to hopefully break down further and provide additional nutrients.

I mowed about six inches off the vines in either side so there is about a foot of material remained to be removed under the trellis. It is supposed to rain today so I’m guessing it will be the middle of next week before I can cut it with a weed eater. I don’t use herbicides so some hand pulling and hoe work around the vines will be the final step.

Had a few field mice sightings as I was mowing along with a couple gophers caught out of their holes. I’m going to let nature take care of that. (edited later when I found the image below on my camera from last night. Took less than 6 hours for nature to show up)