June 8th vineyard update ....

A little over a week ago we got some very strong winds ... 90 mph!!! Yes, that is the same as a category 2 tornado or category 2 hurricane winds! WE got a lot of broken tree limbs and lost a lot of vine shoots. Since then we have gotten a lot of strong winds but nowhere near that strong. And we have had a lot of rains ... many times for several days in a row. In spite of frequent spraying, I have seen some minor signs of PM or DM. This is a first for me in the 5 or 6 years that I've had the vineyard. Hope I can get it under control.

Those replacement canes that I added this year sure are producing a lot of shoots. I have been busy shoot thinning and still have way too many!! And, the vines are in bloom this week and look like a very heavy set ... luckly we ave had no rain but some fairly strong winds. Marquettes usually don't need cluster thinning but it looks like I will need to drop a lot of clusters this year.

After using a 2 gallon sprayer since I started the vineyard, I finally decided that I needed something a little easier to use especially when the canopy is full (easier, meaning no pumping and tank re-filling). So ... I bought a 15 gallon sprayer with an electric pump. Still just a one nozzle spray wand but no pumping !!