Rain!

End poles are braced

The heatwave finally broke a couple of days ago and we had three partial days of rain. This morning it was coming down in buckets. You can feel the earth sigh with relief. With the earth a bit softer again, Alex was able to install the braces for the end poles and cement them in. 

We lost two vines to the heat and drought, both Chardonnay. I will root cuttings from the five year old vines. It seems that just sticking them in the ground works just fine. Forget about rootstock. The other vines have suffered a bit -- a few shrivelled leaves here and there -- but overall not too bad. I'm just glad we didn't have the conditions they had on the continent. Horrible sudden storms, over 220 kph winds, destructive hail, and torrential rain tore from Spain across the Med and into Italy and Austria. The rest of the continent is suffering from drought and heat -- the Danube is down 5 feet, Lake Como is unrecognizable. Many crops were destroyed by either drought or storms. It is feeling apocalyptic. 

Meanwhile, our grapes are now increasing in size and the Rondo continues to turn red. The Pinot Noir are still tiny and fuzzy, I'm not certain what that means. I hope it's not fungus, but the dry weather would indicate not. The Chardonnay have a few clusters, so we will mix whites this year. The Solaris are coming along but not in huge quantities as expected. All in all, it's pretty remarkable. 

I told our story to a woman from Harvard named Sinéad O'Connor, who comes home to Ireland and writes for The Currency. She is writing about the vineyards in Ireland. She heard about us from Colm McCan who teaches about wine at the Ballymaloe cookery school and has a small vineyard in East Cork close to Cloyne. The word is getting out. I guess now we need to start making serious wine. 

View over what looks like a vineyard now

View from the new picnic platform

Dead Chardonnay vine

Sun dappled leaves

View from the East

Monkey puzzle log bee hive

Rondo looking good

2 yo Pinot Noir vines bearing fruit

Chardonnay - very small

7 yo Solaris

4 yo Solaris - drought damage to leaves

More Rondo - veraison has begun!

Mini heatwave predicted for Ireland

Vitis 'Vanessa' in the poltunnel

Ireland will be hotter than Malaga this week with Met Eireann forecasting a spring scorcher.

The mercury is to reach 18C thanks to a big area of high pressure, which will dominate over the coming days. Highs of 18C mean Ireland will be hotter than the south of Spain, where Malaga is expecting highs of 15C-16C with rain. 

We'll be watching closely as bud break last year was 14 April but they seem to be a bit ahead of schedule this year. 

Meanwhile, bud break for Vanessa in the polytunnel was a couple of weeks ago. She's thriving. And the fulvic acid treatment of the soil and leaves of fungus susceptible plants has done wonders all around in the polytunnel. No leaf curl on the peach or the avocado! 

A study of plastic greenhouse soils has demonstrated for the first time that humic acid and fulvic acid have fungicidal activity against many phytopathogenic fungi. What a useful finding!

Another study found that treatment of soil and foliage with HAs strengthens the cell structure. 

And one other study showed that humic acid improved the yield and quality of continuous cropping peanuts because of improved physicochemical properties, enzymatic activities, and microbial diversity of soil.

Oregon on fire

Who would have thought that cool Oregon would be growing Albariño at the Fault Line Vineyards in the Umpqua Valley American Viticultural Area?  But this year, the heating degree units may be almost 30% higher than normal and that may be too warm for the grapes. Not only is it hot, but it also is dry this year. And they are looking at yet another record-making heatwave. 

The weather across the US remains unsettled and unusual. It does not appear to be a good time to be involved in agriculture in many areas of the world. 

Fires & drought plague the US west coast

Russian River

A major heatwave hit the entire west coast of America last week and was even worse than predicted when a heat dome settled in.  It exacerbated what was already one of the most severe droughts in the region, prompting experts to warn that this could be the worst wildfire season ever. 

The Salt Fire north of Redding California near the Oregon border has consumed more than 11,000 acres and numerous homes and structures. But there are many more fires raging in all the states affected. Authorities warned not to set off fireworks for July 4th celebrations. 

The Russian River Valley where much of California's wine industry is situated is under extreme pressure. The Russian River serves as the main source of drinking water for more than 600,000 people in Sonoma, Mendocino and northern Marin counties. Some of the richest farmland in the nation is being left fallow because the water is running out. 

But it's not just California. Oregon's Williamette Valley suffered unprecedented extreme heat during the heat wave. No one knows how grapes will fare under these conditions. They are hoping that it is early enough in the season for the grapes to be able to withstand it, but Pinot Noir is particularly sensitive to heat. Most of the region grows cool climate grapes, and temperatures were 25 to 30 degrees above normal. 

This is what climate change looks like. 

Record-breaking heat wave to hit US west coast

A record-breaking heatwave is about to hit the west coast of the United States during the worst drought on record. 

From California to Oregon and Washington State, temperatures are expected to remain well above normal for days. The National Weather Service has issued warnings. 

⚠️Record-Breaking and Dangerous Heatwave coming to the West. Over 80 sites are forecast to break daily high temperature records starting this weekend. All-time June monthly records could also be broken in some locations in the Pacific Northwest.  

https://weather.gov/safety/heat

What is that going to do to the 2021 grape harvest and all other crops?  The last time California had a record-breaking heatwave, it came at harvest time in September 2017 and turned the grapes into raisins. 

Update 28-06-21

It's hit as predicted and it is unprecedented. Portland, Oregon reached a temperature of 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 Celsius) on Sunday, breaking the all-time record of 108 F (42.2C) which was set just a day earlier. Seattle this 104. 

When temperatures reach this high, grapes shut down to conserve water. If this continues, mitigation strategies will have to be implemented.