The clover cover crop has really delivered on the low growing promise, and it’s been a month between mowings so far. It has also been really dry, which would have been fantastic for the grapes if they were producing fruit this year. There was no irrigation in place for the new vines, which in hindsight was probably a mistake. Luckily, the first half of the growing season was very wet, and only now do they need some water.
Second mowing August 08
The trellis end braces were finally put in, and the first wire was put up. If I do this again, I will plan to have the trellis ready to go up the day after planting.
End braces in place
The front yard Foch is nearly ready to be picked. The forecast calls for no rain until Saturday when some hurricane remnants move into the area. Thursday looks like a good picking day.
08 Foch
Keeping the cover crop and associated weeds cut has always been somewhat of a problem. The right tool for the job is probably a high quality sub compact tractor with a mid-mount mower, and a sturdy transmission (with limited slip) to handle turning at the bottom where the grade starts to be an issue. But this sort of tractor has a price tag near the 5 digit range. Mowing with the brush hog and the big tractor does work, but it takes a lot of time to negotiate the turns, especially when the front loader is still attached. I finally decided on a Sears Craftsman mower, with a 42″ deck. The smaller deck means I can get it into the bed of the truck. Buying the Craftsman means that I’ll eventually end up with some longevity and reliability issues, but there are plenty of places to get parts, and they are not terribly hard to work on. I also got the grass catcher for it, which has to be one of the best designed and well made grass catchers I have seen. The “full bag” indicator is not well designed and does not give a definitive measure of whether or not the bags are full. But it’s pretty easy to reach around, pat the second bag and get a sense for how loaded it is. The downsides to this mower are that it is way too light, and has difficulty turning on even the slightest grade or slightest uneven terrain. I did get the wheel weights after the fact, so hopefully they will help. The standard tires are the common Turf Saver tires, which are great for someone’s front lawn, but pretty much useless for this application. Carlisle does make an ag tread for that size, so that will be on the todo list as well. The rear axle does not have a limited slip differential, which appears to be mandatory. The rare tires could have also been bigger. The MTS 5500 series has larger tires, but was not available with a smaller deck. I went with the hydrostatic transmission, and I can see why people do not like to use it on slopes. However, with a bit of tweaking of the transmission lever, it will go down a hill at a nice slow pace without having to keep the foot on the brake. You just have to plan ahead for changing from downhill to uphill. What did amaze me though was the smoothness and quality of the cut. This was also obvious in my yard at home. The quality of the pictures probably leaves a lot to be desired, but the vineyard looks like a lawn, and not a field.
This weekend, the vine shelters came off, and the new growth was tied up to the bamboo stakes. Halfway through, I ran out of tape for the Ty’mup taper. The Landot Noir showed signs of water stress, and maybe it’s a combination of the vine type. There are around a dozen vines that look like they may not make it to next spring. But I’ve been wrong before. I had a Cabernet Franc vine in the back yard that looked dead, so I mowed over it with the lawn mower. Next spring, it sprouted, and the vine is doing just fine now. One Frontenac and one traminette vine had a single cluster on it. The Traminette flavor was excellent, and was sweet, even though it seemed early for it to be ripe. The Frontenac had a nice cherry flavor. It will be exciting to see how this progresses into winemaking in a few years.
