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Saturday, May 27, 2017

Vineyard Wifery Duties

I'd like to propose a new term in viticulture. I want to call this task "vineyard wifery" a companion term to "animal husbandry". The importance of vineyard wifery for the new plants is to:
  • Allow for air flow in the canopy to ameliorate fungal diseases
  • Keep the best positioned shoots to be next year's canes
  • Keep the shoots in one plane
  • Allow the optimum amount of sunlight access to developing inflorescence primordia to encourage fruitfulness next year
  • Allow for the strongest growth to be closest to the graft union
Lately, since my husband has been busy with the countless other chores involved in post-planting, I have taken on the task of cleaning out the area around the graft union and training our two year old vines that have been producing huge amounts of foliage. I keep in mind what will be next year's canes as well as the cane for the following (2 years hence) growth. I also recognize that each plant is an individual so that there are no hard and fast rules to follow. Here is an illustration of what I mean:

My husband might say that the cleaning could still be a lot better. I enjoy this communing with the young vines. (Up close and personal). Yesterday, when I was sitting on the wheelable garden stool, what I thought was a bumblebee flew close to me. My initial reaction was to shoo it away, but when it came back, I noticed that the body shape was longer than a bumble bee and it flew like a hummingbird. It continued to hover around me so that I could get a good look at it, maybe twenty seconds or so. Later when I looked it up on the Internet, I learned that it was a hummingbird clearwing moth.

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