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June 24, 2006

Desuckering Viognier

Today I had Quentin and his crew out to desucker and tie (train) last year's acre of viognier. While they were working on that I was desuckering cab franc. Given how vigorous the cab franc is as opposed to the viognier, it takes about 30 minutes extra per row (total 90 minutes) to desucker.

Doug came by to take a look at the vines and advise me on how to drop fruit. He noticed a peculiar leaf pattern on several of the vines, and immediately recognized it as 2,4-D damage from our neighbor, who apparently used it to prepare his field for a corn planting. Luckily our damage was minimal due to a thick treeline separating our two properties, which prevented most of the drift. We shall certainly be notifying our neighbor about his dubious spraying habits.

Doug also noticed several leaves with a peculiar ring around the edge, which he identified as a probable magnesium deficiency. The cure - add 4 lbs. per acre of epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) to my next spray! How kooky is that?

Progress was good on the viognier desuckering, but the crew had to leave early in order to catch the Mexican World Cup game! :) Once they left, I went into the viognier to drop fruit. Got a few rows done then called it a day - should be able to finish the viognier tomorrow.

Posted by Stephen at June 24, 2006 2:27 PM