How is it?
Jan 26th 2016. Nets are being placed over the vines.
Brix reading 8 degrees. Have sprayed on Ecocarb. This effects the Ph level, by doing this the black spot stops spreading.

 We store the nets while not in use in Big black plastic bags, in the loft.

 This shot shows off the mesh size

 Looking back up to the house with the nets draped over the vines

 Along the two bottom rows. The first three are Merlot.

I tie the inside rows together with twisty ties. This stops the nets from being blown off in strong winds. It takes a few hours to do all the rows!

 Two more rows to go today. It is very hot today.

 A few bunches of Chambourcin, looking good.

 Looking North west down towards the sea

Looking North east towards the sea. Tide is coming in.

Last days of 2013 in the Matakohe vineyard

How is it?

Have done a bit of work lately on the vineyard.
Bought some wire and finished off the last three rows.
All good now.

Top wire is 10G low tensile wire. Soft as.
Rounded the top or each post, ready for the bird netting
Have sprayed on three lots of Boron during flowering and fruit
setting.

Seems to have worked, as the bunch sets in the past have been more like
hen and chicken (only one or two large and  few small). In some
cases no set per bunch, with all fruit drying up and falling off. Known as colocure.

So am really pleased. You can see the difference!

Now all I need to do is keep the birds off the grapes as they ripen.
Need to invest in white knitted bird netting.
Cost of which will be $1300. Still after all the hard work watching
the birds get a belly full is a little disheartening.
Started to leaf thin around the fruit.

This can be back breaking work.
Have decided to remove all of the plucked leafs and wheelbarrow them
off site. As I have have some blackspot on many of the lower leafs this year.
So bought some EcoCarb and after spraying this on it seems to have stopped
the spread of the blackspot in it's tracks.

Looking good I think. Grapes in lag phase so about 60 - 65 days to picking. Brix 4.2 degrees. 25th December 2013.
Cheers

Leaf plucking the grapes 2012

How is it?

That time of the year again.

The first photo shows the leaves prior to plucking.

The Chambourcin are looking great, the Merlot are again suffering from colocure. Need to look at introducing some Boron, as the Kauri must have stripped it all.

The last two are after leaf pluck.

Finished plucking the last row on the 22nd Jan. All good.

Must investigate about Boron.

Chambourcin grapes from cuttings

How is it?

October 16th 2010. A sunny day.

Last month gathered up a few cuttings from the Chambourcin grapes.

Cuttings are done with an angled cut at the bottom, and a square cut at the top. This reminds me later which end the roots should come from. Each cutting has 4 nodes. So the length of the cuttings vary.

The bottom node is trimmed with a grafing knife, so it is flush with the stork. Then dipped into rooting hormone. The bottom node being cut flush helps the end form a callous. After this forms then come the roots. The callous swells that much that the end of the cutting splits in some cases and out come the roots.

Fine roots emerging from the split in the stork.

Rooted end placed into pb 5 bag. A small amount of potting mix is put into the bottom of the bag prior to inserting the cutting. The bag is then topped up and watered well. Placed in a shade and watered daily.

The video shows cuttings in the bucket and the roots developing.