Cooler weather and shorter days are telling the vines that it is time to shut down for the winter. The sap in the vines is headed down into the root system and soon all of the leaves will turn brown and a good wind will blow them all to the ground.
That doesn’t mean that work is quite done in the vineyards, however. We’re still removing mulberry trees at Tassel Ridge Vineyard but happily, we are almost finished. We are replacing damaged in-line posts in the trellis system and are hoping to get the 10-foot, 4-inch diameter posts we need for the H-braces, so we can make sure each row is rigid. We’ll be applying Potassium soon and we are getting our sheds cleaned and organized. All of our heavy equipment has been lubricated, repainted where necessary, seasonal preventative maintenance has been completed, and the machines are all in the sheds.
We’ve recently ordered an “under-row mower” which will allow us to mow not only in the space between the rows, but also right under the vines. It will swing out into the row when it hits a trunk or a post. It will allow us to do a better job of weed control.
