I was able to get out in the vineyard this weekend and take care of a few ’spring-cleaning’ items.

For the first time, I decided to use round-up (glyphosphate) to control weeds in the vine rows. I had enough to spray around the base of each vine in a circle about 3 feet wide and then I went back around and spray between the vines. Ultimately, I’d like to have bare ground underneath the vine rows.

I also moved one Valiant vine from a nursery spot to a spot in the Valiant row where another vine had died. Once that was done, I gave each vine about 1 cup of 12-6-10 fertilizer. I plan to follow that up in early June with another dose of granular fertilizer and then will use foliar fertilizer (like Miracle-Gro) the rest of the season. Since I had enough fertilizer, I gave the raspberries a shot as well.

The last thing I did was to hit the base of each vine and a few gopher holes in the vineyard with rodent repellent. It’s a product I’m trying out that’s loaded with capcacin. Time will tell if it keeps the critters at bay.

I’m WAY overdue for a newsletter and plan to send one out in the near future. Thanks for your patience!