Gone with the wind

May 7th, 2015 | Vineyards

New shootsOne of the problems of using the pergola system for training vines is that at certain stages of the growing cycle, the plants can be left a little exposed. As the new shoots are suspended on wires about 2 metres (6-7ft) above the ground, it leaves them completely open to the elements. As our vineyards are located only a few km from the Atlantic Ocean, one of those elements is the wind, and if you vineyard happens to be in an exposed location (which is great for maximising sunshine hours), then it can be even more vulnerable when the wind howls in off the sea.

At this point in their development the new shoots are still too short to be attached to the wires (see today’s photo), but unfortunately they are just long enough to be snapped off by gale force winds. The day before yesterday (for the first time in a while), the weather was extremely windy – I have no idea of the exact wind speed, but it was certainly strong enough to cause a small amount of damage to our vines. Of course it is very early days in the vine cycle, and as such we have no real way of calculating how many (potential) bunches may have been lost – suffice to say that it is not the end of the world, and is simply one of the harsh realities that we face as fruit farmers….New shootsOne of the problems of using the pergola system for training vines is that at certain stages of the growing cycle, the plants can be left a little exposed. As the new shoots are suspended on wires about 2 metres (6-7ft) above the ground, it leaves them completely open to the elements. As our vineyards are located only a few km from the Atlantic Ocean, one of those elements is the wind, and if you vineyard happens to be in an exposed location (which is great for maximising sunshine hours), then it can be even more vulnerable when the wind howls in off the sea.

At this point in their development the new shoots are still to short to be attached to the wires (see today’s photo), but unfortunately they are just long enough to be snapped off by gale force winds. The day before yesterday (for the first time in a while), the weather was extremely windy – I have no idea of the exact wind speed, but it was certainly strong enough to cause a small amount of damage to our vines. Of course it is very early days in the vine cycle, and as such we have no real way of calculating how many (potential) bunches may have been lost – suffice to say that it is not the end of the world, and is simply one of the harsh realities that we face as fruit farmers….

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