Saturday morning we went out to inspect several vineyards and put together the work orders for the next few weeks. Jaye was with us mostly so I could show her the way to Peacock Vineyard. I didn’t take any pictures at Peacock but things looked great there. The homeowner does the pruning themselves and we just have a little correction and clean up to do.
Next we were on to Crimson Clover. This also looked really good and the vines are really healthy and starting to get thick at the trunk.
The third stop of the day (after a bathroom stop at home) was at the little Red Hen Vineyard. This was the first place we saw bud break. We put in some flags there to mark spots where we want Millie to install additional posts. The vineyard was pretty vigorous last year and the vines need more posts to hold up the wires that hold up the growth. Stef had already bought the posts so we were just marking out the install points.
Our final stop was at the Brauns vineyard to check on the Pinot Noir Vines there. Bud break was also starting and I took the picture below. We have a few grow tubes to install on smaller plants. We took this vineyard over last year and I think it has suffered from over watering. The vines are scrawny for their age which is a sign to me the roots have not gone deep. That happens when the plants are getting all their water from a drip system at the surface. We’ll work this year to correct that.
Here’s one of the plants that’s furthest along. We’ll also try and limit fruit production here this year so that the plant can work on its strength.
Overall we were really happy with how everything looked and the work that’s been done so far this year. The crew will be busy over the next few weeks on the tasks we’ve put together.