# Taking on a vineyard project - Merlot



## NorCal (Mar 8, 2020)

I met Jane, who owns an acre vineyard 15 minutes from me. She has Cab Sauv and Merlot, two varieties that aren’t well suited for our hot climate. The grapes were close and available, so I bought some Merlot and Cab Sauv grapes last year to use in my Cab Franc blend. The vineyard was lacking some fundamentals of grape growing; pruning, suckering, mildew and pest management. I asked if she would let me care for a row next year (37 vines) and I’ll buy all the fruit, which she agreed.

The vines have been pruned like rose bushes and the overall health of the vines is marginal. This is a picture of how the rest of the vineyard is pruned.



I did a first pass pruning, leaving extra buds, because I don’t know what the success rate will be for the new shoots. It will take a number of suckering passes because there are a lot of areas new shoots will grow out of.





The plan is to leave two shoots per spur, two clusters per shoot. I will spray for mildew and try to knock back the leafhoppers as best I can. Wish me luck.


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## jgmann67 (Mar 12, 2020)

I’m very interested to see how this progresses and compares to the yield/quality from the other vines. Thank you for sharing.


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## NorCal (Mar 12, 2020)

jgmann67 said:


> I’m very interested to see how this progresses and compares to the yield/quality from the other vines. Thank you for sharing.


I will continue to post as this season progresses. I went back to the vineyard to look at bud development and looks to be pretty good. No bud break yet, but I was confident enough that there were viable buds that I pruned back down to two buds per node.


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## NorCal (Apr 25, 2020)

Did my first suckering pass a week ago and the first sulphur spray today. The vines are pretty diseased, but the growth looks healthy.




You can see the difference between my suckered row and the non-suckered row next to it.


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## Boatboy24 (Apr 25, 2020)

Not sure I understand what you mean when you said "The vines are pretty diseased, but the growth looks healthy". Can you provide some detail? I'm a total amateur looking at grapes/vines. Are you saying the new growth looks good, but the 'base' is diseased? Thanks!


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## montanarick (Apr 26, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Did my first suckering pass a week ago and the first sulphur spray today. The vines are pretty diseased, but the growth looks healthy.
> 
> View attachment 60419
> 
> ...


Looks darned good to me. Buds on our vine here in Montana haven't even started to swell although the sap is running.


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## NorCal (May 12, 2020)

Did a first spraying a week and a half ago and a second shoot thinning pass today. It only has one top wire, so it may be difficult to keep the shoots upright. The shoots on my row (on left) are noticeably taller than the rest of the vineyard.


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## NorCal (May 12, 2020)

Boatboy24 said:


> Not sure I understand what you mean when you said "The vines are pretty diseased, but the growth looks healthy". Can you provide some detail? I'm a total amateur looking at grapes/vines. Are you saying the new growth looks good, but the 'base' is diseased? Thanks!


The bark on the vine has a years and years of mildew and other growth. The new shoots are looking good.


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## montanarick (May 13, 2020)

keep it up - quite interested to see how things progress. thanks for sharing


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## GR! (May 16, 2020)

How long since you took over these vines? Very curious to see how this turns out!


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## NorCal (May 16, 2020)

GR! said:


> How long since you took over these vines? Very curious to see how this turns out!


I was looking for Merlot to blend with the other Bordeaux grape varieties that I had access and stumbled upon this 1 acre private vineyard just a few miles from me. The owners moved into the house, with the vineyard already planted. They would sell the fruit to local home winemakers.
The nice thing is you can’t find Merlot in this area, so having access was nice. The downside was the vineyard was not properly cared for and there was way too much fruit, mildew and a lot of leafhoppers. The canopy fell apart due to the leafhoppers and I was forced to pick what I wanted at 22 brix, before the fruit went bad. So we struck a deal when I was collecting the fruit; I’ll care for the entire row for the season and I’ll buy all the fruit. So, technically I took over the vineyard last September, but I didn’t need to do anything until I pruned in March.


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## NorCal (May 16, 2020)

I‘ve been keeping the vineyard owners in the loop and they have mowed between the vines as I asked them too. This noticeably reduced the leafhoppers that were already present. I have a spray for the leafhoppers if they become an issue later in the season. I’ll keep up the sulfur spray every three weeks or so, until verasion.


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## montanarick (May 17, 2020)

sounds like a great deal


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## NorCal (May 20, 2020)

We’ve had some rain this last week, so I decided to go out to the vineyard for a sulfur spray. It is clear that the shoots on my shoot thinned row are substantially longer than the other rows that were not.

The unintended consequence of this is that the shoots that don’t grab the single wire located a foot above the cordon are flopping over. A few have snapped at the cordon and it was clear that more were going to happen.



I decided to tie the big drooping shoots to the guide wire. My intent is to have a strong canopy with an established fruit zone.




A bunch more work to tie up the shoots and I’m not sure if I’m causing other issues, but we’ll see. Clearly two wires, that is 3 feet above the cordon would be a much better design for the Vertical Shoot Positioning that I’m trying to get these vines to comply with.


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## 1d10t (May 20, 2020)

I sincerely hope you will be able to enjoy the fruits of your effort.


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## NorCal (May 20, 2020)

1d10t said:


> I sincerely hope you will be able to enjoy the fruits of your effort.


I helped someone out with a Zin vineyard a few years ago. The deal was we tended to it and got the fruit, giving the owner some wine in the end. Hour and hours of work, only to come one day and have all the fruit removed by deer. The entire vineyard was literally stripped clean. I don’t think that will happen here, but I do know that there is a risk this effort will go unrewarded.


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## montanarick (May 20, 2020)

that would be a shame - good luck


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## NorCal (Jun 9, 2020)

I did another suckering pass and removed some laterals. There is a clear difference in the cluster formation between the the row I'm tending to and the vines in the vineyard. The clusters in my suckered and spayed row, on average are 50% bigger and seem to have more berries.

Note: the white on the leaves is sulfur from my sprayer, which put out a pretty heavy dose.


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## Guasto-IS (Jun 20, 2020)

NorCal - My crystal ball tells me you will be managing the entire acre next year followed by buying the vineyard outright! Awesome job and jeep the posts/pics coming in.


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## wood1954 (Jun 20, 2020)

What a great opportunity good for you


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## NorCal (Jun 21, 2020)

anthony toto said:


> NorCal - My crystal ball tells me you will be managing the entire acre next year followed by buying the vineyard outright! Awesome job and jeep the posts/pics coming in.


I help manage a 20 acre vineyard for the community I live in and know the work involved. If I were retired and looking for another hobby, I could see doing a small vineyard, but grapes are plentiful and pretty inexpensive where I’m at. For now I’ll stick to winemaking, tinkering with old cars and lending a hand with my wife’s horse. 

I‘m due to go over to the vineyard as we are coming up on the time to start irrigation. We do around 5 gallons per plant per week.


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## Cynewulf (Jun 21, 2020)

NorCal said:


> I help manage a 20 acre vineyard for the community I live in and know the work involved. If I were retired and looking for another hobby, I could see doing a small vineyard, but grapes are plentiful and pretty inexpensive where I’m at. For now I’ll stick to winemaking, tinkering with old cars and lending a hand with my wife’s horse.
> 
> I‘m due to go over to the vineyard as we are coming up on the time to start irrigation. We do around 5 gallons per plant per week.


I’m curious about what happens if you didn’t irrigate where you are in California. I don’t irrigate my little vineyard but this will be the first year I’m hoping to get some grapes and we have fairly wet summers in Virginia so I think watering might be counterproductive, though who knows - I may regret it. Otherwise the little bit of amateur education I have was chatting with a few smaller winemakers in the Rhône in France when I lived there and they didn’t seem to irrigate. Does it just ensure that you have more consistent results or is it an absolute necessity for you?


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## NorCal (Jun 21, 2020)

Our soils have a lot of granite, so moisture retention and heat is a challenge. The vines would be distressed if they did not get irrigated. We only water around 6 - 8 weeks, so not too bad.

The vines will tell you if they need water, we just need to listen.

Here is what this week looks like.


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## hounddawg (Jun 21, 2020)

dang reading this thread makes me happy to be a country wine maker, 
, i take it that one could more or less do muscadines that way, i'm way to old and broke down to climb trees anymore. been wondering about running some near the barbed wire fences to the fences, but that's more than i wish to handle,,, but i do respect that kind of knowledge and drive,,,,,
Dawg


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## Cynewulf (Jun 22, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Our soils have a lot of granite, so moisture retention and heat is a challenge. The vines would be distressed if they did not get irrigated. We only water around 6 - 8 weeks, so not too bad.
> 
> The vines will tell you if they need water, we just need to listen.
> 
> Here is what this week looks like.


Thanks for the response; this is very interesting and helpful to me. I’m still figuring out my own site and climate to understand what its needs will be as my vines continue to mature. It gets hot here but we have a lot of clay which seems to retain moisture fairly well and summer thunderstorms which bring water, along with other problems like disease pressure. I always enjoy your posts and learning from an expert!


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## NorCal (Jun 22, 2020)

Cynewulf said:


> Thanks for the response; this is very interesting and helpful to me. I’m still figuring out my own site and climate to understand what its needs will be as my vines continue to mature. It gets hot here but we have a lot of clay which seems to retain moisture fairly well and summer thunderstorms which bring water, along with other problems like disease pressure. I always enjoy your posts and learning from an expert!


Thanks for your vote of confidence, but I'm a novice and there are a lot more people on the site that have forgotten more than I'll ever know.

I am going to swing by the vineyard this evening. With the warm weather and the breeze we've been having, it should really help reduce the mildew pressure, but it is worth checking to see how my investment in time is doing.


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## 1d10t (Jun 22, 2020)

Has the vineyard owner been taking notes?


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## NorCal (Jun 22, 2020)

Went by and did some leafing around the clusters, with the desire to have good air flow. I was less aggressive on the side the faces the setting sun, as to make sure there is ample canopy to protect the fruit from the sun.

I’m sure I’m not doing things perfect, but the vines are appreciating the care they are being given.




A picture of the leaves right across from it on the in cared for next row


And a little video that tells the story better.


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## Boatboy24 (Jun 22, 2020)

Wow, that video tells quite a story.


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## NorCal (Jun 26, 2020)

I sent a text to the vineyard owner, letting them know that we will need to start irrigation soon. Her reply was that they already started. I asked how many gallons per week? With our climate and soil in our area, we give the vines around 5 gallons per week, so I was expecting something close to that. Her response was 24 gallons. 

This could be a contributor to the mildew issue in the vineyard. She agreed to back it down to the 5 gallons and monitor the vine health.


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## NorCal (Jun 30, 2020)

Did another round of de-leafing in the fruit zone, so I had better access to spray. I then gave it another sulfur spray. I still don’t see any sign of mildew, hopefully we can get to verasion without this rearing it’s ugly head.

i did notice that the leafhoppers are making their presence known. Last year the canopy fell apart prematurely due to the leafhopper damage, forcing us to pick the grapes at 22.5 brix. I plan on spraying for these guys this weekend.

My non-scientific measurement of leafhoppers was to grab a long vine, shake it and then estimate the number of leafhoppers coming off the vine. I estimated 30-40 each time I shook a vine. I’ll use that to see as a baseline to see if my spraying is effective. It should be noted that I’m taking care of one row of grapes out of 25 or so, which are not being sprayed.

I do not know if there is any lasting affect with the spray; will the spray just kill the ones that I spray, but an hour later they will be replaced by ones coming from the row right next to it? We shall see.


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## hounddawg (Jun 30, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Did another round of de-leafing in the fruit zone, so I had better access to spray. I then gave it another sulfur spray. I still don’t see any sign of mildew, hopefully we can get to verasion without this rearing it’s ugly head.
> 
> i did notice that the leafhoppers are making their presence known. Last year the canopy fell apart prematurely due to the leafhopper damage, forcing us to pick the grapes at 22.5 brix. I plan on spraying for these guys this weekend.
> 
> ...



AW WAY TO GO GRASSHOPPER,,,,,, lol
Dawg


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## NorCal (Jul 5, 2020)

Gave the row a spray today for the leafhopper. Not sure if it will be effective at all, since I only sprayed my row. I did see some deer damage, which is a little disconcerting.


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## Cynewulf (Jul 5, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Gave the row a spray today for the leafhopper. Not sure if it will be effective at all, since I only sprayed my row. I did see some deer damage, which is a little disconcerting.
> View attachment 63199



Are you certain that’s from a deer? It looks like the hornworm damage I dealt with a couple years ago. I thought it was deer at the time but also thought it was strange they had been so surgical with the leaves since they’re a lot rougher on my fruit trees. Then I started finding the giant green caterpillars and figured out what was going on and now spray with BT. I believe you have hornworms in California as well. Grapes are looking great.


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## NorCal (Jul 6, 2020)

Cynewulf said:


> Are you certain that’s from a deer? It looks like the hornworm damage I dealt with a couple years ago. I thought it was deer at the time but also thought it was strange they had been so surgical with the leaves since they’re a lot rougher on my fruit trees. Then I started finding the giant green caterpillars and figured out what was going on and now spray with BT. I believe you have hornworms in California as well. Grapes are looking great.


 Totally an assumption, based on the leaves missing were on the end of the row or sticking out into the row. There is a lot going on with these vines. I see evidence of other critters and leaf damage typical of the skelotizer. I think caring for part of this vineyard will be one and done. Hopefully I can get some good fruit in the bin. Last year the canopy fell apart the first week in Sept and we were forced to pick at 22.5 brix. I’m hoping the spray will help the canopy hold on until 25 brix.


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## VinesnBines (Jul 6, 2020)

Cynewulf; You do not need to irrigate mature vines in Virginia. My first year vines survived three weeks last September without a drop of water and 90 degree temperatures. We broke over and watered until the second week of October but I’m still not sure it was necessary.


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## NorCal (Jul 14, 2020)

Went to the vineyard today to check on the grapes. First sign of verasio and the wines look like they are doing well on the prescribed amount of water. I will say that there were more leafhoppers on my vines than the others! Not sure if they are migrating to my healthier vines, but looks like my bug spray didn’t have any impact


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## hounddawg (Jul 14, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Went to the vineyard today to check on the grapes. First sign of verasio and the wines look like they are doing well on the prescribed amount of water. I will say that there were more leafhoppers on my vines than the others! Not sure if they are migrating to my healthier vines, but looks like my bug spray didn’t have any impact



wont some DDT
Dawg


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## Cynewulf (Jul 15, 2020)

What do you think caused the poor fruit set in the other vines? Improper pruning and disease management?


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## NorCal (Jul 15, 2020)

Cynewulf said:


> What do you think caused the poor fruit set in the other vines? Improper pruning and disease management?


Improper pruning and no disease management. The owners are very nice people and sell the fruit to local home winemakers. I think they lack the knowledge and perhaps willingness to put in the effort necessary to produce the best fruit the vines are capable of. Either that or they know something I don’t; it’s not over until the fruit is in the bin.


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## 1d10t (Jul 15, 2020)

Well, when the wine is being consumed? I suspect they sell all they grow and probably don't care much past that. One possible caveat. Over pampering, watering and fertilizing can produce larger but tasteless fruits and vegetables in some cases. I'm sure you'll taste a few from each section when appropriate.


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## NorCal (Aug 2, 2020)

Visited the vineyard today. The spraying for the leafhoppers did nothing to curb those critters. I think if my spray had any effect, it was only on the buggers I sprayed, which was limited to my row. I did see some evidence of deer or critter eating a cluster or two, but it was pretty limited.
Verasion is coming to an end and I think it will be a race between the canopy holding up due to the damage by the leafhoppers and full ripeness. We shall see. Last year I got grapes on Sept 2nd @ 22.5 brix. We were forced to pick then due to the condition of the fruit. I’m hoping my row can hold on another week or two (mid Sept) and get to 24 or so brix.


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## ibglowin (Aug 12, 2020)

@NorCal What did you end up spraying for leaf hoppers with?

The last few years they have seem to have found my vines and while I am not seeing canopy collapse just yet, they seem to be worse with each season. I am looking at harvesting this week just because of these little SOB's.


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## NorCal (Aug 12, 2020)

ibglowin said:


> @NorCal What did you end up spraying for leaf hoppers with?
> 
> The last few years they have seem to have found my vines and while I am not seeing canopy collapse just yet, they seem to be worse with each season. I am looking at harvesting this week just because of these little SOB's.


I used Monterey Horticultural Oil.

It looks like it is going to be a challenging week for those vines with compromised canopies. Those clusters exposed to this afternoon sun for a week may not fare too well. I'll have to go out and visit the vineyard this week and maybe take a brix reading. I have seen these temperature spikes speed up sugar accumulation, but I've also seen vines stall during these spikes in temperature as well. I suspect dehydration plays a big part.


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## ibglowin (Aug 12, 2020)

Yikes. Might need more than those 5G this week!


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## NorCal (Aug 12, 2020)

Yea, I’m going ask her to bump it up. Looks like my enemy is deer. They got the first 6 or so vines and are working their way down.


but still some good fruit left




brix check, seeds still green


20.2



Update: Received a text back from the vineyard owner. “Yes. You are right. I will (increase) water . I have a dog patrol my vineyard now. Thank you”


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## ibglowin (Aug 12, 2020)

Dang, so close. A bird will leave the the skins and just peck at the sweet center part until its all gone. That looks like a four legged thief to me.


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## NorCal (Aug 20, 2020)

Visited the vineyard yesterday, brix jumped from 20.2 to 22.5 in a week. I've seen heat increase brix, as well as have them stall. The seeds are most all brown at this point. The canopy is hanging in there, but the leaf hoppers are doing their best to make it fall apart. Deer have taken more fruit. I'm hoping the canopy will hold up for another week and a half or two weeks, so we can have more hang time and brix levels at or above 24. I've decided to harvest the fruit myself, as I will avoid any clusters with damage to them.


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## Boatboy24 (Aug 20, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Visited the vineyard yesterday, brix jumped from 20.2 to 22.5 in a week. I've seen heat increase brix, as well as have them stall. The seeds are most all brown at this point. The canopy is hanging in there, but the leaf hoppers are doing their best to make it fall apart. Deer have taken more fruit. I'm hoping the canopy will hold up for another week and a half or two weeks, so we can have more hang time and brix levels at or above 24. I've decided to harvest the fruit myself, as I will avoid any clusters with damage to them.
> 
> View attachment 65029



Are the deer still working on the grapes?


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## ibglowin (Aug 20, 2020)

So my question. Do the leaf hoppers affect the fruit in any way as far as taste, flavor profile. Do they leave their poop all over the fruit?



NorCal said:


> Visited the vineyard yesterday, brix jumped from 20.2 to 22.5 in a week. I've seen heat increase brix, as well as have them stall. The seeds are most all brown at this point. The canopy is hanging in there, but the leaf hoppers are doing their best to make it fall apart. Deer have taken more fruit. I'm hoping the canopy will hold up for another week and a half or two weeks, so we can have more hang time and brix levels at or above 24. I've decided to harvest the fruit myself, as I will avoid any clusters with damage to them.
> 
> View attachment 65029


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## NorCal (Aug 20, 2020)

Yea lost 


Boatboy24 said:


> Are the deer still working on the grapes?


The dang things started on the first row and are working their way down. I’ve lost 10% or so and if I avoid the partially eaten grapes maybe 15%. The owner said she is getting out there and scaring them off, but that only goes so far.


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## NorCal (Aug 20, 2020)

ibglowin said:


> So my question. Do the leaf hoppers affect the fruit in any way as far as taste, flavor profile. Do they leave their poop all over the fruit?


The leafhoppers are after the leaves and do their damage there. I haven’t seen any direct damage on the fruit, just indirect when the canopy prematurely falls apart.


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## Snafflebit (Aug 21, 2020)

My experience is that deer are creatures of habit and will follow the edge of a vineyard. Since your row is on the edge, that places you in the danger zone. Call Kenny Loggins! 

Congrats on finding a vineyard, however much of a pain it is. I am currently managing two lots of cab sauv and merlot also. They are lots that were planted by previous owners and the current owners are basically overwhelmed by the management of the vines. The romance is dead I would say. Local vineyards were coming in and doing some pruning and taking the fruit, but I would describe it as strip mining the vineyard and not maintaining the vines. I am having to deal with sick, dying and dead vines. Once I got in and started to work with the vines it was apparent what a mess the vineyards are. So, I am left to decide if I invest my own time and money into getting the grapes I want out of the vines. Currently I am dealing with nutrition and disease issues. I just sent petioles off to A and L labs in Modesto for analysis. Kicking myself for not doing that sooner. Only $35


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## NorCal (Aug 27, 2020)

Went to the vineyard earlier in the week. With the hot weather, the vines have stalled and Brix measured out at 22.5 The leafhoppers are starting to get to the canopy, with leaves loosing their ability to shade the clusters. The worse part is the deers have now eaten 30% or more of my cared for grapes. They are smart animals and see the low hanging fruit!

Even though I would like to let the grapes hang another week, I think the best thing is to get the grapes this weekend. My son-in-law has agreed to come up and help me harvest and crush the grapes. I know the vineyard owner and I was expecting 750-800 pounds, but I will be surprised if we get 400 pounds, as I will only take clusters that I want to make wine out of, which rules out those that have been partially eaten by deer.


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## NorCal (Aug 29, 2020)

I am set to harvest my prize row of Merlot grapes on Sunday! My son in law is coming up to help me harvest. I got a call from the vineyard owner. Her first words were, Ken, I’m so sorry. Not the way you want to start a conversation. She explained that all the other rows have many shoots sticking out in all directions that it makes it difficult for the deer to get the fruit, where my row the fruit hangs down and the deer have left all the other fruit alone in the 1 acre vineyard, except my row. The plan was 750-800 pounds from my row. She thinks there is only 200 pounds left. She has offered me another row, but really defeats the purpose of a years worth of work. I’ll see it on Sunday and decide what to do.


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## wood1954 (Aug 29, 2020)

Too bad you can’t fence it in, chicken wire and steel posts cost me less than $200


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## NorCal (Aug 30, 2020)

Harvest completed! 

In the end, the deer ate 2/3 of the fruit! I got 250 pounds out of the 750 pounds expected. However, the fruit that I did get, looked pretty darn good (23 brix 3.55 pH). The owner saved another row of Merlot grapes for me. We cherry picked another 100 pounds and left the rest (she wasn’t too happy). I wasn’t going to sacrifice the quality of the wine I want to make by including marginal fruit. It was nice to have my son in law to help and we were able to chat for a few hours.
I asked if she would consider putting up deer fence, to which she replied “no, cost too much”. This will conclude my relationship with the vineyard. I’m happy I was able to see the difference in the fruit due to my care and while I’m not getting the volume I wanted for my barrel, the wine that I am making from these grapes should be really nice.


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## ibglowin (Aug 30, 2020)

Ken, since its only one row what about some netting?


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