The vineyard crew started planting vines at Maple Woods on Monday. This involves drilling a 12-inch diameter hole about four feet deep with an auger. The person doing the planting kneels down and partially fills the hole with the dirt. He or she sets the extensive root system on top of the loosely pack dirt at the bottom of the hole. They very carefully push the rest of the dirt back in around the vine roots. They will stand up and tamp the dirt at the top of the hole with their feet to leave a small depression right around the vine cutting. This will collect water. There is a lot of kneeling down on hands and knees and then getting up and moving to the next vine.
We are also working on some unusual maintenance issues. One of our tractors is getting two new clutches while our Hagie sprayer has some unexplained issues with the sprayer controller. We hope to have both machines back in operation this week.
