When we put up our netting in 2017, the question we asked ourselves was should the netting be "stored" up high or should the netting be kept low? Since my husband uses a mechanical weeder when the weeds grow, putting the netting low didn't seem to be such a good option. So, in 2017, after harvest, we rolled up the netting and kept it on the catchwire like so:
When growing season came last year, the netting that we rolled very tightly in the fall, looked like this after the winter and the winds.
The loose netting created multiple problems including the vine growing outside of the netting, tendrils growing into the loose netting and the growing tips of the vines getting trapped in the netting.
A lot of care had to be taken to untangle the tendrils from the netting, move the tendrils into the catch wires and remove the growing tips of the vines from the netting.
This year, we knew that we had three problems that we had to address:
1: How to move the netting so that we could avoid tendril issues
2: Where to move the netting so that we could avoid tendril issues
3: How to more securely cinch the netting so that it doesn't unfurl
To address the first issue, we switched over the netting from the catchwires to a moveable wire. We also decided to lift the netting to a higher trellis post setting during the initial growing season. For the third issue, we put more ties on the netting to secure it better. Here is our Chenin Blanc with the netting on the higher setting:
This is the result of moving the trellis wire in the Chardonnay which is way ahead of our Chenin Blanc in growth. It is much easier to shoot position the Chardonnay. If the vines have grown outside of the catch wires, it is not a problem to move them into the catch wires. Once all of the vines are at the top of trellis, we will move the rolled netting onto the lower setting in preparation for netting the grapes sometime in August.
We hope that this will alleviate the removal of the tendrils from the netting. We will see.
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