We have now removed trees from the entire 33-acre Tassel Ridge Vineyard. This is a big step because trees and shrubs will prevent us from eliminating weeds that grow under the vines. These weeds compete for the nutrients that we will apply in the spring.
You might be wondering where these “volunteer” trees come from. Birds eat any fruit that grows on these trees located anywhere in a several mile radius of our vineyard. The top trellis wire in our vineyards is a great place for birds to sit and relax…and to relieve themselves. The seed for the tree is thus deposited on the ground right next to a vine and because it is wrapped in a nutrient package, it gets off to a great start.
We started this work in the southeast section of the Tassel Ridge Vineyard about two months ago and have noticed that a few new trees have already come up in that part of the vineyard. I think we’ll be on “tree patrol” for a long time.
We also removed nine rows or about one acre of Sabrevois vines that were the first vines planted at Tassel Ridge about twenty years ago. We have not harvested fruit from these vines for several years. We don’t have any plans yet on what variety we will plant in this block or when we will plant it.
We received the new under vine mower that we ordered. We await the visit of the technician to actually start using it.
The Steuben block at Meadowcreek vineyard needs a lot of attention. We are going through the vineyard and tying up the vines and suckers in some cases and are then removing the weeds and any shrubs we find. It is a large block and will require weeks of work.
Last week’s overnight freeze reminded us that cold weather is coming so we are turning off water in our vineyard buildings and are draining water lines. We blew out our irrigation lines and will have the backflow preventers winterized.
