Hello and Welcome,
This is the Climate Update for
May 2016 from Amalie Robert Estate.
The big news for the month of May
is that the vines produced flowers on May 27th. This is a necessary
precursor to harvest, however it does not guarantee we will have a harvest.
That depends on Mother Nature’s mood during the bloom period. Alternatively, if
the vines do not produce flowers, there will be no harvest regardless of the
weather during bloom. Logic, while somewhat inconvenient, is your friend. But
there is more, oh so much more, to the month of May for the Willamette Valley
Starting at the bottom, we have a
lovely spread of cover crops this year. Ernie was able to decode the Spring
rain pattern and get those seeds drilled in between the cloudbursts. What we
see here are very happy little plants that will fix nitrogen, help condition
our soil, provide pollen (protein) for our carnivorous insect friends, seeds
for the Quail and then become food for our vines this fall. It’s now legal to
grow your own in Oregon ,
but we have been using cover crops to feed our vines, bugs and birds since the
turn of the century.
Moving on up about 34 inches we
have our first set of catch wires clipped into place. This is a beautiful thing
and the basis for a Vertical Shoot Positioned trellis system. The first set of
wires is the most important set of wires as they dictate how the shoots and
follow-on clusters will be oriented. We want them separated to promote good
airflow that will allow for the evaporation of the morning dew that could allow
mildew to take hold. We demand few things from the vines, but discipline in the
canopy is one of them.
And just when you think you are
ahead of the curve, it is time for the second set of wires to be raised. As we
move further into the growing season, the weather generally improves. Warmer
temperatures mean the vines grow faster. And that means the shoots get longer –
Right Farmin’ Now! If we run the numbers on 45,000 vines with 16 shoots each, assuming
a growth rate of an inch per day that would give us about 60,000 lineal feet of
growth per day! That’s what we’re talking about! Canopy management is a
job done by hand, and that’s a lotta hand “work.”
And somebody has to cut the
frickin’ grass. Every other row in the vineyard has Tall Fescue as a permanent
cover. This allows Ernie to get through the field in case of a wet and sloppy
harvest. But the grass responds to the heat and available soil moisture just
like the vines do. Going back to our handy dandy slide rule, we see that 45,000
vines work out to be about 90,000 lineal feet of vineyard rows to mow. Why
that’s just about 17 miles worth of driving, at about 2.5 miles per hour. How
was your day, honey?
Of course, hot and dry vintages
need short grass to preserve soil moisture so there are a couple more mowing
passes than what we would see in a wet vintage where we are letting the grass
grow tall to deplete excess soil moisture. That’s the thing about viticulture,
you gotta pay attention.
But relief is coming into view as
Ernie gets ready for his first hedge. Oh sure, the vines have had their way
with us up until now, but “The Enforcer” will soon be on the scene. We just
need to get that third wire up and clipped into place first…
In light of the recent increase
in Internet spamming of business phone numbers, we would like to share our new
phone number with everyone. It is the square root of 25,389,796,008,272,100,000.
Feel free to leave a message if you like.
And, quite conveniently, here are
the numbers for May. While April was one for the record books, May gave us all
kinds of fits and starts. We had high temperatures, low temperatures, wind,
rain and why the hail was that ice
falling out of the sky? It was like how April should have been, but wasn’t.
For the month of May, 2016, we
logged 277 degree days with a high temperature of 87.4 and a low temperature of
38.0 degrees Fahrenheit. This provides a May to date growing season total of
441.9 degree days, compared with 287.4 degree days for 2015. The historical May
to date growing season degree days are contrasted below:
Rainfall for the month of May
totaled 0.77 inches and included a little hail. Fortunately, the hail was
before the vines flowered and it was not forceful enough to do significant
damage to the new shoots. Rainfall for the month of April has been revised up
from 1.57 inches to 3.14 inches and that provides a May to date growing season
total of 3.91 inches.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
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