Pre-bloom

My last couple of weeks have been trying to play catch-up regarding the first pruning of the season. It really can be described as our final dormant pruning prior to the start of the new year, but since the vines are well under way it is a real stretch defining them as dormant. What we are now doing is limiting the number of buds and/or shoots were are allowing on each vine. Though there is a complicated way to determine this, we are basically leaving 24 shoots per vine.

Rich has been busy on the French vinifera, while I am on the Nortons which require a completely different mind set in how they are pruned. I also hired an intern this year, and assigned him to the Cabernet Sauvignons to prune. It is a great place to start a new guy. The vines aren't overly complicated to understand at this point. He is primarily setting their height for cordon development this current year. He also will be on weed patrol, inter-row ground cover cropping, trellis repair, "sucker patrol", and irrigation repair. It is a good way to be introduced to the vines without being overwhelmed.

Though I wish all this work were behind us, to get it done by June 15th is still OK. It must be done before the shoots get too long and the tendrils are fighting against your desire to spread out the canopy for proper light distribution among the vegetative and fruit growth of the vine. The vine is growing at its own speed and now they are at pre-bloom stage.

At first you would think you are looking at little tiny berries on a stem, but upon close examination they really look more like tightened tulips that have yet to open. Many are closely packed, while others are a bit more loose as in the picture. The designs for these bunches follow the genetics of the type of grape that they are. Some tend to be rather tight, while others a bit more loose. Loose bunches are ideal where we are, because it lets the breeze dry out any moisture that can be trapped between the grapes, providing fewer places for fungus spores to hide and grow.

This is a critical stage in our spray program. When we spray we need to get into all those little crevices with the fungicide to prevent any kind of spores from making these small spaces their home. If fungus is allowed to stay there, they will remain invisible until it becomes really hot and humid in July and August. Our berries will be fully formed at this time, starting to go into a stage called veraison where they change from green to the color of the grape, either a deep red or a vibrant yellow-green. It is also a time when the skins begin to soften some and that is when they are most susceptible to  fungus invasion. Bunch rot, sweet rot, sour rot, black rot etc.etc. all bring nightmares to a vintner. And bugs aren't much help either. If they penetrate the skins looking for some sweet nectar, that it all it takes for the fungus to spread wildly.

It is so much easier to grow grapes in California, where their weather is a lot drier and there is a steady breeze from the Pacific Ocean. They are not plagued with all the diseases we experience in Virginia. It is the choice I made.

Modern Veterinary Skills

Convincing a cow to do something it is not inclined to do is another one of those animal behaviors that has no easy solution.

Even though I don't have to milk the beef cows three times a day, they do require some care. A month ago Rich and I steered them into a squeeze pen where I administered vaccine shots to the 2 calves. The pen is a lifesaver, holding them still to be able to lift some neck skin for needle insertion. Via mail order or at your local farm supply store, it is easy to purchase hypodermic needles and the  vaccines required for periodic administration. Just don't know what all the fuss is about in the inner city pertaining to getting these needles, but I suspect a heroin shot with one of these babies would make your eyes roll up into your head fairly quickly.

Anyway, with that task behind me, my next caretaker item is to address the fly situation. Cows attract flies like crazy. Especially with all the poop around. Last year I used a small hand held pressure sprayer and it didn't go over real well. One shot of mist at a cow led to the herd running away. So I had to keep my eyes out for a better solution. They make these insecticide saturated ropes that extend between 2 poles, thinking that the cows "just know enough" to walk under it, rubbing their backs on the rope. My cows are likely to use the poles for scratching and not go under a rope; the cow would ask what the rope is for.

The solution came around this year, as technology met the need to satisfy a farmer's craving for new toys. They now have a paintball gun designed for shooting fly repellent globules at the sides of a cow. One application lasts for 5 or 6 weeks.

As with all things that send out flying projectiles, there is a 20 page booklet of instructions, 18 pages of which are dedicated to legal obligations and warnings. Geez. There are only 2 moving parts.....a trigger and its safety. Well, one of the warnings had to do with acclimating the cows to the sound of the gun. They suggested that you go out and feed them some corn (or equivalent as a positive reinforcement) and, standing 30' away, shoot off the gun a few times. They said this may have to be done several times until the cows get used to the sound of the gun and associate it with the other good things going on.

I loaded up the gun with a CO2 cartridge, carried the gun oh so carefully out to the field, paced off my required 30' (no, not really), and proceeded to shoot the gun at the ground, unloaded of course. While the cows were eating from their pails of sweet corn, I pulled the trigger and then the gun went........poof. That's right: poof. Not BANG, not CRACK. Just a "poof." Think of a rolled up pair of socks being tossed underhanded against a wall. Poof.

The cows didn't turn an ear. They didn't look up at the sound. Corn was all they cared about. So, Rich and I then scheduled the next day as our day of reckoning. I loaded the gun with the globules; bright orange ping pong ball sized spheres were placed into the chamber. My CO2 cartridge was still in place. We walked out knowing we had to approach the cows from the side and be about 15' away before I could shoot at their front shoulder area.

As you would suspect, Rich and I were the greatest excitement that the cows had seen all day. They raced across the field as we approached the gate. Almost had to push them out of the way to allow the gate to swing to allow us in.  I backed up as per the instructions and located the spot on X446 to make my first shot. It had been a long time since I fired a gun and I thought the bigger target would be a good place to start. Holding the gun as if it was a machine gun right out of a Chicago gangster movie, I took aim, pulled the trigger, and then poof, followed by a SPLAT ! Orange slime slipped down the cow's side. The calves now were nearly right on top of me, and without missing a beat I went poof, poof, and one last poof. The job was done. In a matter of minutes all the cows had this insecticide applied to them. They seemed disinterested in the whole process, other than maybe some disappointment that I didn't feed them their sweet corn. Bummer.

I went back the day after to do a fly count on the cows, and I can truly say that they are fly-free. It really worked.

More vaccinations in a couple of weeks need to be done. I think however I'll leave the artificial insemination scheduled in the Fall to the Vet.

What City Folks Think That All Country Folks Should Have

For a year now I have been directing projects that my father could make when he was in his winter home in Florida. Simple things I imagined. A wrench to turn off an underground water valve. Engraving some numbers to attach to the vineyard posts. A more complicated project such as a goat feeder since I know I will have goats in the not too distant future.

With that being said my brother Ron decided that no good farm should be without chickens. My experience with these foul is that farm fresh eggs are way better than store bought. The yolk is richer and has more color than the pasteurized eggs that the big box stores sell you.  I know this because a couple of my neighbors have brought over eggs they have in excess....it's not hard for a handful of chickens to crank out over a dozen a week. [cholesterol should  not be a major consideration]

So all of a sudden my father's project was diverted, from goat feeder to a more immediate need of a chicken nesting box. Ron was going to visit  me in the Spring and he was determined to bring up chickens from Florida.....there had better be a place for them when they arrived. Being short of time to build a chicken coop, I sucked it up and dropped $99 on a small chicken coop with the idea that I will place it in a fenced in area that had previously been used to protect the vegetable garden. My father proceeded to build a multi-level nesting box, with removable partitions should size matter to a chicken, and with a slanting floor that allowed the egg to roll to the front of the box. Made out of 1/2" exterior ply, this thing could support a car. Ron on the other hand built a portable chicken coop, with hinged top and chicken wire enhancements, so he could drive north for 600 miles and have the chickens oblivious to the time travel.

But Ron did not just build a box. For weeks he visited a local chicken swap to understand the hows and whys of chicken purchasing. Pullets, roosters, hens, chicks. All new jargon to a city boy. The time came near to his trip north so he shelled out the $24 for six chickens, presumably all female hen-types. There were a couple Rhode Island Reds, and Americana, and who knows what else. Getting pedigreed chickens is not a priority at these chicken swaps. So for a week Ron watched over these chickens in his garage as he acclimated them to life with a Sheldon. They never had so much attention.

Being maybe 6 or 7 weeks old when they arrived here just the other week, Ron and I introduced them to their new home in the vegetable garden. The new coop, up on legs, was eagerly accepted, and the fenced in area was 1000 times bigger that the small cage Ron had them in.

Chickens are chickens however. They navigated the parameter until they found a hole they could squeeze through, and every day they manage to go through it and relax under a boxwood bush immediately adjacent to the fence. They don't tend to wander far, though I have spotted them in my backyard. My cat either hasn't spotted them, has but doesn't care, or the chickens are just fast enough to stay outside of claw range. As they get bigger I suspect they will be able to handle themselves, though to be honest I have accepted the fact that THEY ARE JUST CHICKENS !

I did the "Rocky" thing once, chasing them around the pen to get them in their coop at night.....a locked haven from predatory creatures. It was a loosing battle. Now I just wait for 8 p.m., put a fresh bowl of feed (medicated of course) in the back of the coop, and wait a minute or two for the march into the coop. Seems to work without too much grief. They have always been there at night time.

One morning I was out and about at sun up, and heard one of them give the cock-a-doodle-do. A rooster in our mitts? I slowly approached them and they clammed up. Other attempts to spot the culprit have been without success.

Chickens start laying eggs when they are about 6  months old. So sometime during September I should be able to have farm fresh eggs. At a store price of $2.99 a dozen, I hate to think what my break even point is for these chickens.  Oh, and for you city folk, you don't need a rooster to get eggs !

Houston. We have lift off.

A farm requires the need to have a variety of new "toys".

Remember when you bought your first house? It seemed at the time that the trip to Sears always meant coming home with a new tool. A hammer, a saw, pliers, wrenches, and on and on. These tools quickly built up to being able to handle most home projects. From here it was time to step up. All the tools one could get for under $25 were already had, and that meant the next tier of tools was required.....all those under $100. A power saw, electric hand drill, belt sander, a saber saw (we now needed multiple saws to do different tasks), some fancy saw horses, maybe an electric screwdriver. We had moved from just fixing things to now making minor adjustments and alterations to what had been working for years.

But that is not where it stopped. There were still tools to be had under $250 ! Table saws, a drill press, planer, belt/disc sander, and ultimately a radial arm saw that could cause real damage in the hands of someone less skilled.  We were now into remodeling, major construction, building decks, you name it.

Farms make these pricing thresh-holds seem tiny. There is the $1000 level, the $2500 level, and from here it quickly jumps to major segments......$2500 to $5000, $5000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $25,000 (ouch !) and then some that can be so large it is down right scary.

But I digress. For the last 4 or 5 years I have dedicated pages to weed control, and to spraying fungicides on the vines. I had been using an augmented Fimco Sprayer (buy these at any Tractor Supply or similar store). It was just a big tank with a boom sprayer attached. Instead of using it in typical boom fashion, I had turned the booms 90 degrees, and flipped the 2 sidearms up so that they were parallel to the vines, instead of aiming towards the ground as originally designed. It seemed to work, even though I was never quite happy with how well it got the chemicals distributed.

And then last year we had an absolute disaster just before harvest. We had been watching the grapes to achieve their final BRIX, and then the weather flipped and became horribly hot and humid. That is a bad combination, because every latent spore multiplied and fed off the sugars in the grapes. Beautiful grapes became shriveled masses.....our harvest was diminished by tons.

I vowed never to let Black Rot, Downy Mildew, Sweet & Sour Rot, or Powdery Mildew get the best of me again, and the way I was going to attack this issue was to upgrade my sprayer and be very, very diligent in maintaining my spray program. At the time this blog was written, I have already sprayed three times....a spray every 6 to 7 days. Chemicals like Manzate Pro-Stik, Phostrol,and Sulfur are the mainstays, but later I will be adding Quintec and a host of insecticides like Sevin and Malathion in as much as Japanese Beetles (who absolutely love grape leaves) will be arriving the first week of June.

This new sprayer, a John Beam, is like strapping a jet engine onto the back of the tractor. The high speed fan sends a fine mist using its air blast design through the leaf canopies and across several rows at once. No side of a leave goes without coverage. It's quick too...in 4 hours I can spray both of my  fields which are 11 miles apart. Now with that being said, because it sprays so fine a spray, I have to put on a hazmat suit and respirator. Give me a fighter pilot's helmet and I am one step away from flying mach 1.

Shoots !

It has only been a week since the vineyard proclaimed that Spring has arrived. Buds have opened up and started to grow.

Vineyards and the activity of the grapevines has to be one of the most documented horticultural events there are. There are 47 defined life stages of a grapevine, with bud break actually being #4, and the  2 - 4 cm shoots with 2 or 3 leaves separated being at Stage #9 as seen above. Things change very rapidly in the vineyard this time of year.  We will watch as we get even more leaves, 10, 12, up to 16 or so as we also see the beginning of bloom......the start of little fruit clusters.

When we last pruned during the dormant season we left more buds than we ultimately desire. We are looking for about 24 buds that have fruiting character; 12 on the left cordon and 12 on the right. Basil buds, those that are near the cordons, generally don't provide fruit, but they are the beginning of replacement spurs should we need them. We have put the herbicide spraying behind us, and on Monday we will be putting down some 33-0-0 fertilizer. about 1/4 cup , at the base of each vine. We'll start out fertilizing 3000 vines, but eventually all 8000 will need to be done. After that it is a mad scurry to perform final pruning on all the vines to get to our final bud counts before the shoots get to be about 10". If we delay beyond this then energy will be channeled to areas we don't want.

Right around bloom the necessity to begin our spray program takes top priority. I have yet to calibrate the new sprayer we got....maybe later this week. Other than gasoline to power the tractor, trucks, and ATV, spray chemicals are the second largest expense in a vineyard. But without them, we might as well write the season off. Where we are the climate is both hot and humid; conditions that make it ripe for fungus growth or insect infestations. These are problems that California doesn't have any where near the level we have in the Mid-Atlantic region. I just finished a report on "going Organic" and objectively decided to try this in Virginia is the kiss of death, for being organic prevents one from using all the tried and true methods for keeping these diseases or bugs in check. There is one certified organic vineyard in Virginia and it does not appear they are close to profitability. To wave a banner and go broke  is not a good business model.

Bud Break 2014

It almost gives you the same sensation as waking up Christmas morning and wanting to see the presents under the tree. It has been discussed with anticipation all through the winter. The pruning has to get done......before bud break. The spraying has to be done.....by bud break. The trellis needs to be repaired.....all by bud break.

Like a clock ticking, the calendar keeps moving along and eventually you get to the time when winter is officially over, and the chance of a killer frost is behind you. Of course all these projects didn't get done. Maybe the To Do list was overly ambitious, or maybe there were too many other things to do.....after all, bud break hadn't come yet and there is always tomorrow.  Intermittent cold weather or rain always seemed to get in the way. It would have been nice to have two weeks in the 50's during December, January, and February. But it didn't happen. And as many of you are aware, I spent plenty of time dealing with livestock issues.

Regardless, with all the work still to do, there now is even more ahead in the very immediate future. When we did dormant pruning, we left extra buds on the canes in case we had severe winter injury. Now we need to prune these extra buds away in order to obtain "balanced vines". On the Petit Verdot , they need to be trained by selecting cordons and tieing them into place. For our Cabernet Sauvignon, we are in a "height stage", where one trunk needs to be selected from several emerging from the grafted knot that we will allow to grow to the 2nd wire. And all this needs to be done before our shoots get too long, and send out their tendrils that will fight us even more in the trimming process. Excessive shoot growth means energy is going to all the wrong places on the vine, instead of making that nice balance between photosynthesis and fruit growth.

This is also the time to do some required book work. Rates and ratios from last year have to be studied regarding the sprays we used. Then I have to place a seasonal order in with the local Farm Service to make sure the chemicals are available when we need them.  To complicate matters, I upgraded my sprayer this past Fall, to an Air Blast Sprayer, which sounds like a jet engine strapped to the back of the tractor when it operates. It takes the fluid pesticide and pulverizes the droplets to an extremely fine spray and blasts them across several rows in each direction.  The fan lifts the leaves up and mists their tops and bottoms. It even manages to squeeze its way in between the hanging grapes in their loose bunches which will help prevent bunch rot. I have no idea what the spray rates are for this machine, so I will have to go out and practice with a tank  of water before I pour gallons of chemicals in the tank for an actual spraying.

This year I also want to fertilize the vines. After last year's harvest there was a small depletion in soil nutrient level. This needs to be replaced, and the decomposing organics in the cover crop don't satisfy this need. Applying some 10-10-10 will likely be my fertilizer of choice to enhance the macronutrients . There is no easy way to put this down under the trellis wire. A cup of fertilizer must be applied to each vine, sprinkled in a ring 12" to 15" away from the trunk. It is a laborious job.

All's Calm In The Pasture

Since my last post regarding my cows, there have been some tense moments that have led to some emotional (not really) decisions to be made. Shortly after the late evening escape covered in my "It's All About The Moods" post, the herd managed to escape again and have an early morning jaunt over to the same farm they had visited a few nights before. The downside to all of this is that I no longer had my trusty farmhands (Rich & Chris) to help me herd them back.

Just as before the resident farmer gave me a call and told me where to find them; a good half mile away. They were adjacent to a fence in his northern pasture, sort of watching other cows and a few eager bulls as they nibbled on some short grasses under the barbed wire fencing. I was cold, and tired, and frustrated, and worst of all alone. My limited experience told me that trying to get them moving in the direction I wanted, being alone, was more likely going to end in failure as the cows bobbed and weaved from my blocking of escape pathways. It is not unlike them to start heading in the right direction, only to have them take a wide u-turn and go right back to where you  had them a half hour earlier. And this was the case today too, until all of a sudden Charlie (who owned the bulls and cows on the other side of the fence) came driving through with his pick-up truck to cut them off and start pushing them away from his bull....whose only motivation for staying on his side of the fence were an ample supply of females he called his own. My 4 cows however provided the bull with new conquests, and Charlie didn't want a bull to escape to satisfy his appetite.

So Charlie and I drove our trucks as if we were riding ranch horses, across fields that had hardened up enough so our wheels wouldn't sink in. The fields had corn last year, and the thought crossed my mind that with all of these short corn stalk spikes one would eventually spike through a tire. But the task at hand was to move the cattle back to the farm and all we could do was hope nothing else happened to interfere with this mission. Amazingly it went well, and the cows went to their pasture as hoped.

With my mind rattled, though some calming was now evident, I got on the phone and called the guy that I had bought the cows from and asked if he knew someone that I could sell my 2 trouble makers to. T29 and U204 took great pride in crashing through fencing for their nightly ritual of exploring the surrounding neighborhood. I had to make a business decision to at least get rid of these two cows that were causing all the grief....not that all the others didn't follow their lead on these great escapes.  I was lucky to find out that there was a rancher in the next county that had a red angus herd, and would be willing to buy these two cows and their unweaned calves to supplement his herd. He couldn't pick them up soon enough !

By the next day, with some difficult coaxing needed to move these 2 cows and 2 calves to a loading pen, he came and picked them up just hours before he was scheduled to go on vacation in South America somewhere. I am very glad he saw the need to grab them before he took off, which would have meant another 10 days of unhappy adventures.

Cutting my herd in half helped to solve my problem immensely, but it wasn't a cure all. The 2 calves that remained with their more reserved mothers still had an adventurous streak, and they would easily crawl through the loose barbed wire fencing that still bordered 2 sides of my pasture.  I had put electric fencing up on the west and south sides by then, but I had the 2 remaining sides still to do.

So one morning I woke up and here the four of them were, eating the grass in my back yard. My yard is surrounded by a tall picket fence which I decided was a good place for them to stay to bide me the time to complete the electric fencing around their pasture. I closed the gates and for the next 3 days I threw baled hay into my back yard, which given food and a place to drop their plops they seemed fairly well at home. When the fencing was done, I "scheduled" a half day to gently move them back into the pasture.

Since then they have been fairly content. No break outs. No bad behavior. The replaced fencing has kept them in and allowed me to get many a good night's rest. They have been fed either roll hay or bales every day, and with it nearly the beginning of April I suspect that grass will be growing soon so I don't have to keep feeding them. The calves are getting rather big now; I am guessing they are easily 400 to 500 pounds each. From a distance it is hard to tell them from their mothers. They are still sucking down their mother's milk though, which probably won't last for too much longer. The moms will want to kick them away soon; they are getting too demanding and too large to keep hanging on.