Esca and Young Vine Decline: what you should know
Esca and Young Vine Decline: What you should know. One of the wisest things ever told to me was “If you can’t get out of it, get into it”. This phrase came into my life while working a boring summer job as an angsty teenager almost two decades ago and since then I have never […]
Ask a Viticulturist: Which rootstock should I use for Tempranillo?
Ask a Viticulturist: Which rootstock should I use for Tempranillo? “As a part of personal research and experiment, would anyone know on which rootstocks Tempranillo is usually grafted in Spain and US-California Regions where it has performed well…including the most suitable trellis system for this variety? Any help or a pointing in the right directing […]
Baby, it’s dry outside: an update on the drought and what it means for vineyards
Baby, it’s dry outside Here’s what we’ve seen so far… If you haven’t noticed, California is in a bit of a dry spot right now. Here in Windsor, middle of Sonoma County, this winter yielded a whopping 9.7 inches and the vintage is showing it in some surprising ways. We’ve written about the impending drought […]
Ask a viticulturist: How do I manage my Red-Blotch-infested vineyard?
Ask a viticulturist: How do I manage my Red-Blotch-infested vineyard? I have a vineyard with a fair amount of Red Blotch in it. It’s not enough to justify pulling the whole vineyard. Can I manage those vines differently so that I get a quality crop in the meantime? Thanks for reaching out! In response to […]
The practical side of spraying: a conversation with Alec Roser, VP of Vineyard Operations
The Practical Side of Spraying A conversation with Alec Roser, VP of Vineyard Operations I’m a nerd. I know a little bit about sprayers, but mostly from an academic standpoint. I’ve never done maintenance on them, never operated one, etc. So, I’m enlisting the opinion of my colleague, Alec Roser, to give our readers some […]
Will there be a spray-on cure for Pierce’s Disease?
Will there be a spray-on cure for Piearce’s Disease? A grape-derived peptide holds promise as testing continues The following is reprinted from Wine Business Monthly’s August 2020 issue. Read the original article here. I recently spoke with some of the players on the team: Michelle Miller, Co-founder and Manager of Innate Immunity, Goutam Gupta, Senior […]
And the time to irrigate is…now?
The time to irrigate is…now? As if frost season didn’t suck enough Happy budbreak! Actually “budburst”, as I’m told that is the more accurate term. Or perhaps you’re in the Southern hemisphere and are celebrating the end of harvest…good for you, mates. Archive the crap out of this post. For the rest of us though, […]
What, when, where, why: Fertilizer applications throughout the season
A Season of Nutrition How to fertilize your vines for maximum quality The following was originally published in Wine Business Monthly in February 2019. Management of vineyard nutrition is not an exact science, but nutrient/fertilizer management is not something that should be handled generically either. It’s quite easy to approach fertilization with off-the-shelf blends that […]
What is sap flow pruning and how can I apply it in my vineyard?
What is sap flow pruning? Some basic principles should be applied to pruning to sustain vine health over the long-term The following is an excerpt from “Grapevine pruning to maintain sap flow“, which originally appeared in Wine Business Monthly in February 2021. I was first trained in the art of sap-flow pruning while working in […]
Free money? Free money! How the EQIP program can help you conserve your on-farm resources
Free Money? Free Money! An interview with Brooke Pippi on the EQIP Program and what it can do for your farm I was lucky this past week to sit down with Brooke Pippi, an agricultural engineer with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to talk about the EQIP Program and how it can help farmers in […]