All done! For now.

Albarino, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Solaris in that order

This morning I finished tying up the last few vines. It's looking very civilised and tidy now. Actually looks like a proper vineyard. I will continue to prune back and remove some leaves to help the grapes mature. 

Once again, there was rain in the forecast that did not materialise. At least we got some yesterday. 

I was using a device that sometimes works to tie up the vines. But I do not like it. It puts plastic into the environment, wastes a great deal of that plastic and makes it take a lot longer to complete a job. The unit pulls out a swathe of plastic tape, you slide it over the vine and wire, then clamp down and it staples and cuts the plastic tape -- sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't staple, sometimes it doesn't cut, and sometimes it gets stuck inside the tool. Very frustrating. And the tool often gets stuck on the vine if it's thicker. I wasted so much tape that I had to order more. 

What I also ordered were all kinds of things for securing viney growth, like stretch mesh tape, special cable ties and a new supposedly much-improved device. We'll see. My past use of nylon stocking strips was not as effective in the vineyard because they decompose every year, and I need them to last for several years until the vines are strong enough to stand on their own. 

Anyway, happy last day of July. I must say, the weather was much improved over June. I heard today that they are beginning to harvest Chardonnay grapes in Portugal, the earliest they've ever matured by far. The heat waves on the Continent have been brutal. 

Pruning, staking and tying

Dyna-Living Vineyard Tying Tool  

We have been working away at pruning the vines, staking those with broken supports, and tying the primaries onto the stakes. Alex bought me a cool concept machine to use for tying. It sounds impressive and promises a lot, but it leaves much to be desired. It takes an engineering degree to figure out how to load it. It works like it's supposed to about 50% of the time, leaving you frustrated and wasting plastic tape and staples. 

I finally finished today but ended up hand-tying quite a few that the machine just couldn't get around or when I just couldn't get it to work properly. I'm sure part of it is practice, but many times either the machine didn't grab the tape properly or it didn't staple but cut the tape.  Anyway, it's now done. And we have amazing weather for the next week. 

What's most amazing is that in January we still have a rose blooming in the vineyard!

What a beautiful day!

It was a gorgeous day right from the start. Puffy clouds, gentle breeze, reflecting colours, cold and crisp but not unpleasant. Ghosty and I got to work mid-morning. First up -- the polytunnel.

Did some weeding and turning of the soil surface. Fed the plants with fulvic acid to strengthen their resistance to moulds. Checked on the progress of growth (lettuce seeds have sprouted and peas will soon be ready). Pulled a few dead plants. 

Then we had lunch and moved on to the vineyard. I made good progress on pruning the vines. Completed the long row of Solaris and finished the Chardonnay. Will probably need some edits when I review what I did as I tend to be a bit conservative the first time around. 

The only vines left to prune are the short row of Solaris and the Albarino, which really don;t need it yet. 

I was also tying things up and trying to use the new tool Alex gave me for Christmas but I just couldn't get it to work for me. 

The weather is going to turn bad tomorrow for the next few days, so I am glad I made progress today. 

The pruning continues

Alex has done a fine job on the first 10 vines that are now 6 years old. They really grew a lot last year. You can see from the piles of cuttings how much had to be removed from the lot. 

I went out to continue pruning the Solaris vines that are now 4 years old. They grew quite a lot, too, this year. Most have reached the top of the support posts.  It's quite satisfying to cut them back. But every time I go out, it soon starts to rain and I stop, especially since Ghost complains. 

The last sunrise of 2021. Don't look back. 

 

The pruning of the vines has begun

 

The weather has become stable and we had a cold snap, so it was time to start pruning. We need to finish by mid-January. I started with the easy vines - the 2 yo Pinot Noir and the 3 yo Chardonnay. I finished those two before it started to rain again. 

Alex tackled the 6 yo Rondo and Solaris vines, which required much more severe pruning. He's doing a nice job, cutting back to a point that will become more productive for us next year. 

Ghost naturally had to help and Mini supervised from a distance. 

It will take a few days to finish the task, but I am not concerned about getting it done before January 22. 

One of my Christmas presents from Alex was a tool for tying up vines. It took a bit of practice to get it to work. Another present was a wildlife camera which I have wanted for some time. On this first night of using it, I managed to snag great photos of a fox. Foxy has been spotted in day time before. Tonight, I'm hoping to catch sight of a pine marten. Then I will move the camera to the vineyard to see if we can spot the badger and see what else lurks in the darkness. 

I gave Alex a gift of red Viking Irish wine made by David Dennison in Waterford. His first vintage is a blend of Rondo, Regent and Pinot Noir. Very encouraging. 

It was a somewhat festive Christmas despite the rampant spread of the Omicron variant of Covid. Everyone we know was either sick or a close contact of a confirmed case. Knock on wood, we've managed to escape so far. With our booster shot delivered two weeks ago, we should be okay through New Year's Day at least. 

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Winter Solstice

Polytunnel Christmas Tree

I am so excited. Tomorrow marks the day when days start getting longer again. The Winter Solstice on the 21st of December is always the great turning point for me. It's the shortest day of the year delivering only 7:23:41 of daylight. I go from wondering if I'll be able to make it through the winter to looking forward to the grand stretch in the day. 

This year, once again, with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading around the world like wildfire, they are live streaming sunrise from Newgrange today, tomorrow and the day after but not allowing any visitors in. Today, the forecast is for dense fog on the east coast. No luck with the light. 

We've had grey greyness for days now and will have it tomorrow, too. Wednesday and Thursday we are to have heavy rain. Then nice on Christmas Eve and a gale on Christmas day. Alex and I are on duty Christmas Day at Ross House so we'd be inside all day anyway.

I will start pruning in the new year. I've been reading up on new thinking about pruning. It seems some say to do a partial pruning as normal but to leave more vine until March or after bud break to prune as that will delay bud break and avoid frost damage. It's a method that may mitigate the effects of climate change. I don't think we can afford that given our short season, especially given that the result was lower sugar content. 

For now, it's just confusion about everything in life. At least we got our tree up. And the one at Ross and the one on the raft in the inlet. Three trees in two days -- a record of sorts. Oh, and a little artificial one in the polytunnel because we happen to have three of them. 

So, Happy Christmas everyone! We'll see you again after. 

Rosnakilly Raft Tree

Our tree

Ross House Tree

Sap Flow Pruning

Leave two spurs!
If you only use one side of the vine, the other side will die off.
(Wineaustralia.com, 2021)

I was just catching up on some reading and discovered that we may have unwittingly pruned very effectively in our first years. It turns out that if you leave just one renewal spur, it draws sap up one side of the vine only, and the other side eventually dies off. To keep the sap flowing all through the trunk, keeping two renewal spurs or fruiting canes on opposite sides of the trunk saves the wood from dying off. 

Sap flow pruning seems very logical. We did it because we were afraid that only one spur wouldn't;t have a great chance of surviving, and we could always select the stronger spur later on. But now we'll keep it always, with canes going off in opposite directions trained on the overhead wires. I feel fortunate to have been conservative. 

Pruning the orchard

Ghost assisting with pruning in the orchard

This week, we finally got a break in the weather. So I undertook the pruning of the orchard this year whereas Alex had done it last year. The new feral kitty that adopted us this winter was very helpful. She loves climbing trees and mimics everything I do. She chewed the ends off branches and caught falling branches to stack in a pile. 

I have one more tree to prune. The daffodils are up, the native honey bees and bumbles are awake and loving the heather, the skies have been amazing. No complaints.