Sunday, May 13, 2007

This week: 11th. May


Weather Report Week Ending 11/5/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 22.1C (71F) on Mon.
Minimum Temperature for the week 4.6C (40F) on Thur.
Rainfall for the Week 1.0mm (3 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

A reasonably fine week this week. While we continue to have quite warm temperatures, and after the rain of last week, everything is growing very rapidly. Our minimum temperatures this week have all been above average except for the one cold night on Thurs. This probably means that our soil temperatures will also be above average for this time of year.

This week in the vineyard:
We have (at last) finished spreading all of the fowl manure (not a very pleasant job). I am now putting in our cover crop as fast as I possibly can. We are planting a blend of Tritacale and Barley this year. I mostly plant Tritacale because it grows well in our lighter soils, and the straw doesn't break down very quickly over Summer. This year we are adding some Barley because I don't have a lot of Triticale available to me and I am trying to spread what I have as far as I possibly can. We continue to prune our vines, with our first block of young Semillon nearly finished.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here in the Southern Cotes du Rhone region in the Provence we also had a lucky break with the weather. During the first week in May it rained for an entire week. Constant rain an entire gorgeous week long. And here is the good news: This week we have rain again. Much needed rain.

The couple of dry years has had a dramatic effect for some of our vignerons: the vines are starting to wear out and mortality in the vineyards is becoming a worry. More important: the vine stocks don’t have enough strength to resist certain fungi, some of which originate from the other side of the world (not Australia of course).

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