Sunday, May 04, 2008

This week: 2nd. May 2008

Weather Report Week Ending 2/5/08
Maximum Temperature for the week 17.9C (64F) on Thurs. 1 reading above our monthly average of 17.3C.
Minimum Temperature for the week 4.2C (40F) on Tue. 4 readings above our monthly average of 6.5C.
Rainfall for the Week 33.0mm (94 points) 6 days of rainfall recorded.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Well I think winter has finally arrived for us. We have recorded some rainfall nearly every day this week , with significant falls recorded on 4 days (more than 5 mm). We also have had much cooler daytime temperatures; in fact we had our coldest daytime maximum in more than 10 years on Sunday (11.1C).

This week in the vineyard:
The rain has been fantastic for us. We are all walking around with big smiles on our faces. I have now got virtually all of our triticale covercrop planted. There are just a couple of young blocks of Sauv. Blanc still left to plant, I am just waiting for them to lose a few more leaves. While I have been seeding I have also been putting out a residual herbicide under our vine rows. This spray is usually done early in spring, but I am going away in a little over 2 weeks for 4 months and so I am trying to minimise the amount of work that needs be done while I am overseas. It will be very interesting to see how well it works towards the other end of the season. The photo this week shows a section of the Barossa ranges just starting to change colour to their winter greens.

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