We had a moderately heavy, steady rain all through the night into the early morning hours. Even some puddles! Much needed and more on the way later in the week.
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Finally hit budbreak yesterday in the pinot. This is about as late as I can remember. I expect that a massive cover crop that, until recently, kept the soil deeply shaded and cool may have had something to do with the timing. I had planned to mow the taller mustard and bell beans and give the clovers a chance to grow and set seeds, but it was more than my mower could handle, and I ended up disking it down. Iāll work it into the soil gradually over the next month or so. There was vetch in the cover crop mix that was starting to climb the vine trunks, and thatās a pain in the ass when it gets too far. Though I would have preferred to avoid disturbing the soil at all this year, I still feel it was a productive off-season for organic matter accumulation. I had 5 solid months of nitrogen fixing and microbe feeding from the roots of a big stand of cover and another coming month of digesting the above ground portion before things get too dry. Next up on the agenda is renting the biggest Ditch Witch I can find to trim back oak roots encroaching on a couple edges of the vineyard ā likely a nightmare job, as Iāve not done it in probably 15 years.
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Our rain event was a bust - we ended up getting a half hour of misty rain. It was supposed to rain all afternoon. It did remain cold through out the day. We are supposed to get into the low 80s this week, so I would expect to see budbreak at that time.
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We ran our fan again last night but there was too much cold air, not enough humidity, and not much inversion. Fan ran from midnight to 4am then we switched over to sprinklers until about 8am. Everyone around us just ran fans, well see if they got any damage. At 4am there was frost on the drip hose a clear sign to switch to sprinklers. Pencil eraser stage on some PN buds. We had the neutron probe folks out last week, soil moisture profile is even drier than last year at this time. We could use another 10" of rain butā¦ the .09" we got yesterday aint going to cut it. There is something in the forecast that might drop .5".
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Navarro lets me monitor three of their weather stations as one is right next door to Day Ranch. One is across the Hwy from Foursight in Boonville. This morning at 4:45 it read 27 degrees. In Philo we touched 30 for a couple hours. We really only have about 2% pencil eraser, otherwise tight. With low 80ās coming Tuesday, everything will pop soon.
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ā¦and we have full on budbreak here at my small ranch. Pruning kicks off the farming year, but we all know that budbreak is the real event.
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We got about 1/3ā of rain last night, we could use so much more.
Pommard starting to leaf out. Picture from a couple days ago.
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It is raining here all day, and relatively hard and steady. This is in addition to what came in last night - this morning looked like it might become a sunny day.
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I got an application of organic fish emulsion put down in the vineyard the other day. A well-fed vine is a happy vine. The temperature is set to hit 90 today, and yesterday was very warm, too. Then we are supposed to slide into a cold trend with highs in the low 60s.
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Yesterday the low was 30, everyone in the valley was running protection. Wind machines barely worked almost switched to water again. Then a high of 86 yesterday and were into the 90ās today. Things are starting to take off.
May get a .25 inch in Monday and frost again after that.
Way to carry the torch for Anderson Valley. We leave for AZ in 12 days and I get my last check next week.
Assuming there is no freeze/frost, and focusing only on the impact on the 2022 growing season, are there any possible negative impacts if there is rain in the next week or so?
Had another hard frost last night, overheard sprinklers for the win. Not enough inversion to get mich use out of fans.
Rain is ok, and desperately needed. Until bloom there are no issues to be concerned about.
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I read on Facebook last night that a Sierra Foothills grower / vintner Iāve visited in the past lost a lot of their new buds and vine growth to frost damage the other night. Wouldnāt be surprised if there are others in various parts of California whoāve had frost damage this week.
And I got an email last night from a friend who lives just outside of Portland with photos of snow and hail yesterday! Hope the weather up that way doesnāt cause too much crop damage.
Thereās been a little rain - though not very much - coming through the Bay Area in the past week with more expected today, Saturday, and possibly next week. May not end up amounting to a lot but anything should help right now. Except that itās a pain bottling wine in rainy weather, which Iāll be doing today.
We had a substantial rainfall overnight. In Calistogaā¦
The flower formations look good. Iāll get out and take a look around when this rain ends, but now I am grateful for the rain for 2 reasons: 1) the obvious in regards to drought. but 2) the rain generally keeps the frost away.
Am under contract to TRB at Elusa Winery at the Four Seasons here in Calistoga for my 2022 fruit. Wonāt miss bottling days!
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The Hood River valley farmers believe they lost a good chunk of their cherry crop due to the snow. This is the latest measurable snow weāve ever had at PDX.
Hearing today of more Sierra Foothills vineyards with vines that got fried by the recent frost.
Shake Ridge got frosted; donāt know the extent yet
Does this mean you are finished producing Black Cat?
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