A little chilly out there this morning. The hill above my house have a dusting of snow.
First time since we moved into our house 11 years ago, that we sat in our hot tub in the snow. Pretty fun. Hope to have some pics in the morning of substantial snowfall.
Hard, fully formed ice on the windshield this AM. #brrrrr
Not as much as I hoped for. In no hurry to get in the field and start pruning. MUST be some paperwork to do?
A snowy day at Halcon. We get around half a dozen snow days a year but this was an especially heavy one. Close to 6 inches on the ground. Paul
Great pic Paul. Do you have to do anything special as far as vineyard prep?
Yes, great pic Paul! Thanks for sharing.
No prep needed. Vines are in a deep sleep. No impact on them. We will be pruning at the end of the month.
Paul
Trying to finish the Gruner block tomorrow. It’s a 3 acre field and I’ve pruned every vine myself. Everything from vines cut back to two buds to some with a 10 bud cane and a spur. Guessing that there will be a half a ton this year with 3 tons in 2020. I checked on my two guys pruning the 2015 planting of Robert Young Chardonnay and they’re doing a great job. The bulk of the crew now on cane pruned Gewurztraminer. Very happy to see more rain arriving Friday and even better than that is the next week or more showing high temps in the mid-50’s. Let’s keep those vines sleeping as long as possible.
Do you see any disease problem pruning so soon before rain?
One of the things we’ve done for many years is not making any big cuts at this time of year. Any cut over the size of a nickel as put off until March when sap flow is so strong that eutypa dieback can’t enter the vines.
Lots of pruning going on up and down Napa Valley. It can’t all be done at once, so the crews have to be out there. My place is so small that I can basically wait until I am ready and get a crew in to do it within a day.
I love the cover crop, and it is still growing like crazy. If the crew comes in to prune, they trample it all down. We generally paint any cut larger than a dime when pruning. I don’t burn the cuttings or disk them into the ground. I have them removed and recycled. I don’t like all that smoke.
Pretty good chance of snow tonight. Off and on cold showers for lots of the morning today. Thinking about heading back to Mexico!
Y’all buckle up. Pretty good storm headed our way. Hoping snow levels are high so as not to create flood concerns. SO happy we won’t be using the ‘D word’ for the coming months. Wednesday and Friday seem to be worst days.
Safety meeting this afternoon.
Big, big, big effing wind out there tonight. Hang on folks!
We did not get exceptional winds, but this rain is something else. Hard, steady, and no where for it to go in some places. The water coming down from the Palisades Mountains down Pickett Road past Kenefick and Eisele is excessive. The ditches alongside the road were full up a couple of hours ago, but the ones in front of my property just had about half an inch. Glad I have gravelly loam and not sandy soil in the vineyard - it provides excellent drainage. And a huge cover crop that I assume has roots that are aiding in absorbing excess water. But we are in for at least 2 more days of this, I think.
Some Chard and Pinot buds starting to get fuzzy. Those are on vines not yet pruned, but it still makes the hair on my neck stand up a bit. Starting to see some action on fruit interest. Had an intruder in my bird coup last night. All 6 quail abducted and consumed. Sad day at our house. Did repairs and hoping to meet the perp tonight.
Pellenc sales rep mentioned to me that they could not get to their building in Santa Rosa yesterday. Sounds like heavy rains with waterways overflowing the banks and closing off roadways. Time to throw out the anchor in CA. For us on the east coast we are warmer than usual…high 30s to low 50s during the day with nights low 20s to mid 30s…balmy. Almost ready to pull out the shorts and flip flops.
Plenty of snow last night at about 2000 feet. We should see some big cells of cold showers today.