The plants are in the ground.
Now I need to keep them alive, watered, protected, and weeded.
Ten days ago the vineyard had a sterile, but orderly look. It was unplanted, but ready.The angled end-posts were lined up in a row, all sunk to the same depth. Then, exactly every 18 feet, the trellis posts lined up, with straight rows north-south, east-west, and then in oblique rows at additional angles as one looked in different directions. This gave a scientific and disciplined look to the farm.
There is practical value to the ship-shape aesthetic. The precise placement allows me to run my tractor between the nine-foot rows, confident that the margins were consistent on each side of the equipment.
Now things are different. Plants in the ground are similar, but not uniform. Some have budded out. Some have not. The dormant plants were alive and ready to bud out.
Most of the plants show buds. The metal rod in the above photo is four feet long and as big around as a pencil. My nephew and I stuck them about a foot in the ground, by hand. There is one for each plant. It's purpose is to hold up the grow tube I am placing around each plant. The white tubes give the field a military cemetery look, but without the precision one sees there. The tubes lean.
Not every vineyard bothers with grow tubes. I need them because this land has a special attribute that is both extraordinarily good and extraordinarily troublesome. The pumice soil is ground up pumice rock. It has the consistency of beach sand or fluffy powder snow. The grape roots will be able to extract nutrients and flavors easily. It also means that even the smallest weed seeds find places to start growing, making this soil notoriously weedy. Here is a closeup of a wet spot made by the drip system, filled with tiny weeds after less than a week.
I need the grow tubes surrounding each plant so that I can cultivate and spray right next to the grape plant. The grow tube will protect the plant from being hit by a herbicide and will better mark the plant when I am weeding with a hoe. Those weeds would be three inches high in a week, and eight inches high in two weeks -- if I didn't get right on them.
The little grape start is down at the bottom of the grow tube. It doesn't photograph well, but this is what it looks like when one looks down the tube. You see the grape plant, the rod, and the stiff loop of paper in the tube. The tube is the consistency of a milk carton.
A week ago I posted about hiring a crew of workers to help me plant. I did not want to be the White landowner sitting in the shade. I worked alongside the young men and kept up. The crew commented on what a good worker I was, for an old man. I took it as a compliment. I should have taken it as a warning. In my hubris I re-injured an old hernia problem. But grow tube installation is light work so I will be at the vineyard before 6:00 a.m. today, working alongside two employees.
I appreciate the help of Guest Post authors during this vineyard rush period. The work will quiet down and I will go on the road again soon to see the presidential campaign up close. Three Republican candidates are in New Hampshire and four are in Iowa.
I commend you on this undertaking and on your willingness to engage in some of the physical labors. As an avid gardener I know the value of caring for the soil. One way is with cover crops to feed the mycorrhizal fungi and other organisms. I recently visited the Troon winery near Grant's Pass and they are doing some fabulous things with regenerative farming. After that comment I will now mind my own business!
Congratulations on this new vineyard, and best wishes to the plants. Hope you have a good trip east.