Last rows to tie up

My assistant Ghost surveying the vineyard

Today was as beautiful weatherwise as yesterday was not. Alex was out on the bay with the Oyster Coop spat survey. After visiting his mother and bringing her the paper and mini stollen, Ghost and I ventured into the vineyard to continue the tying up and cleaning up. 

We tackled the Albarino row first. As it turns out, it really needed attention. I think a reason why it did so poorly is that the pink ribbons were attached at the base of the vine, then covered over with the protective plastic wrap which was further sealed with black tape. The pink plastic ribbon inside the sealed protective wrap was rotting the wood. In several places, I had to extract the plastic from the bark. I hope we don't lose more vines. But they are now free of plastic and secured with very flexible and breathable nylon ties.

We then finished the row of Chardonnay vines and tackled the final row of Solaris. I came away with a bag of plastic, making sure to remove all shreds from the land and vines. 

It was starting to get a bit darker just then when Alex arrived back from the survey. I showed him what was happening and we both had a good learning discussion. I hope the vines will recover and are not too stressed. 

I need to go back again the next nice day and walk the rows to see what I missed, as I know there is much I didn't see when I was working intensively to get it done. Brown tape on brown vines is hard to see. I plan to remove all plastic so it doesn't break down into microplastics in the environment. 

Pink plastic ribbon inside protective plastic, tape removed

Pink ribbon cutting into the vines

More badger evidence