Nets & Sprays

[meridaen]

So this is the first year that my vines are going to be giving me something to work with come February. We don’t have a lot of things that ruin your crop down here, but we do have powdery mildew and we do have birds. Lots of them.

The nets will have to come out from Christmas onwards, but I have a couple of basic questions as I haven’t done all this before on my own, and I’m a bit confused about a few things.

1. Do nets increase your susceptibility to PM, given the cuts down on air circulation? I realise that the berries are mostly immune to it after verasion, but I imagine it could still be an issue.

2. Which leads me onto this one, how do you spray if you have the nets on? Surely you can’t just leave the canopy for a month or I would imagine you’re setting yourself up for another big fight the following growing season.

I live near Heathcote (Victoria) and things are pretty dry and hot most years, but word is we’ll have our fourth wet summer in a row, so it’ll be another long fight. Just a couple of things that have been on my mind even though it’s bearly budburst here.

 

[David Engel]

Unless your birds eat green grapes or grapes that are still hard and haven't started to turn, nets are necessary at THAT time when the birds just seem to know the snacks are ready. I just lost 90% of my Pinot Noir because I didn't put nets up soon enough. Can't comment on spray, we don't spray (too small a vineyard).

 

[richinsd]

1. nets go up when the grapes start to get sweet. nothing seems to bother them before they are sweet. verasion is our trigger for the reds. with whites you should test ours are usually sweet before the reds hit version.

2. you can absolutely spray through nets. depending on weather I end up spraying 2-4 times with nets on. we have bee netting (vs. bird netting). as long as you thin leaves/canopy to allow circulation around the fruit you should be fine. the nets will cause the shoots to bunch up in some places and you'll lose some leaves because of it....but the part of the shoot above the net is usually fine. do not go a month without spraying.