Vineyard Update

Growing grapes is tough! It is at relationship level tough! Every week and almost every day it needs attendance and care.

Everything started out so well, however it has been a particularly humid and wet year from March right through to July and as such the vines have manifested a bad disease: Downy Mildew.

The leaves started to turn brown and eventually the grape bunches dried up. Unfortunately due to our situation of not living on the farm at the moment and working a full-time job I had not started to apply anti-disease measures in time to stop the rot. However, it being the first year and also the fact that other more experienced grape growers in the region were having enormous difficulties (some loosing 80-100% of their yield), I’m not going to be too hard on myself!

I’m now applying a copper-water mixture to all leaves to attempt to salvage something. As I have read this activity is important also for next year as when you leave the disease to manifest it will leave the vines with lower reserves (thanks to leaves falling off) for their winter hibernation and production capabilities for the following year.

So now every week I apply the medicine and apply some hope.

But it is an interesting learning process and I am already planning changes for next year. One of the most important ones are concerning the lawn-mowing function and also cutting back the vines to allow better management.