It's not officially summer yet, but the grape vines have taken off and we are shoot tucking, shoot positioning and shoot thinning around the graft union in the Chenin Blanc.
This brings us in close contact with the vines. So far, we have seen two empty bluebird nests neatly built around the vines in the graft union. This photo also shows how many shoots are in the region of the graft union which is quite typical of Chenin Blanc clone 982.
We are pruning the excess shoots to give the vines air flow in that region. This means that we are also deciding how many shoots to keep for next year's canes.
Photos from last year on June 17, reminds us that we have to shoot position otherwise, the vines can become very unamangeable like this:
Photos like that (the horror, the horror!) provides the incentive on a hot, humid day like today to press on. Another incentive is that when working with my husband, he has such sharp eyesight that he finds cool things. On one of the tendrils there was a little bunch of something. We took a picture and when we looked at it in detail, it was the instar of the spined soldier beetle. Definitely, a good thing to have in the vineyard.
Cool sitings and the occasional breeze that carries with it the scent of honeysuckle that is blooming around the vineyard makes work not work.
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