Vintage 2018: Summer

This growing season started off with a cool and wet spring but as we transitioned into summer, rain was no where to be seen. This summer reminds me very much of the summer of 2016, after we planted 4200 vines.
My husband and I decided that we must once again rent a generator so that we can power up the well. So, on July 9th we rented the generator and my husband brought out the Irrigation Manifold Assembly, and put it together on the scaffold.
On July 10th, our friend came to help us prepare the irrigation system. First, we undid the connections to the underground system to see if the water will come out of the 7 zones that we have. There are 36 of these connections that needed to be disconnected.

Then, toward the end of the day, Tony, our well guy came out to ensure that the controller was working and talking with the pump and voilà, water! One problem that we had was that there appeared to be an air pocket in the system so on July 11th, the 7 zones were tested separately to see if the the blockage could be isolated. Once water was flowing through the flexible tubing from the underground conduits, the tubing was secured to the irrigation hose and the north end of the irrigation hose was opened up to see if the water was flowing through the irrigation hose.

I was working at the north end of the vineyard when I saw the water spouting out of the irrigation hose. It was a site to see! We have been irrigating our vineyard since July 11th! Today, Mother Nature is providing us with free irrigation.