Summer is just around the corner and we’ve been busy spraying the vines against powdery and downy mildew – amongst other diseases. The weather has been hot, wet, cold, windy and occasionally still. The trick is to look ahead on the forecast to find a day with no rain, and still but not too hot. You need it not to rain straight after you’ve sprayed otherwise it washes off and you have to do the whole exhausting process again.
We use bouillie bordelaise, an organic mixture of copper and sulphur. It turns your silver jewellery black, so off it all has to come before you start. We have hilly land and vines planted close together so we take the safest option and walk behind the small orange tractor which carries a 500 litre tank and a pump with a lance on a long tube. We visit every single one of 5000 vines and spray it by hand. The great thing this year is that, with the new/ancient sprayer we don’t have to kug the gloop ourselves. It takes around 450 litres to do the whole vineyard and previously we were carrying that, 7 litres at a time, in a backpack sprayer, then having to retrun to base to refill. It was a huge and onerous task. But with our new rig it still takes nine hours to do all the vines, and it’s a very long walk, but it is soooo much easier.
The weeds have grown as tall as me, but these Grenache vines still need to be sprayed. These vines are still on the ‘To be strimmed’ list.
After the mazet Syrah vines were strimmed.
After the strimming these Syrah have been trellissed and had some of their leaves removed to let through the sun and wind.
The views towards the south east are magnificent when we start spraying at daybreak.
Here’s the precious ancient tractor which helps us do the spraying. Ali is treating the Carignan at the top of the vineyard.
I’m thinking of buying 3 lines of vines (maybe 1200 vines) and am wondering what equipment I’d need to buy for their upkeep. What strimmer would you recommend?
Hello Shabby
I guess it all depends where your vines are and what you’re going to do with the grapes. If you have the luxury of flat land then you and a strimmer might work for weed control. We always buy Honda or Stihl. Honda start like a dream and Stihl are the what all the pros would use. You’ll also need hoes and lots of friends to get the weeds out of the ground. Or Roundup and a sprayer if you aren’t going to be organic. If you are only buying three rows there are probably lots of other vines around you in which case you’d be better asking what the other owners use. They may be part of the local cooperative in which case you may be able to buy shares and share equipment. You’ll need to spray your vines against mildew several times during the summer depending on the weather and disease. You’ll need secateurs to prune your vines each spring. You’ll also need a trailer to cart stuff away from the vineyard, like the grapes for example! And a tractor to work the land. That’s it for starters. If you plan to make the wine as well there is a whole raft of extra equipment. Where are you?