The warmer weather of spring awakens vines out of their winter dormancy.  Usually it is the early varieties which burst first or those sites which have a northerly aspect and manage to capture the sun and the warmth at this time of the year.

Generally around Margaret River bud burst appears to very even and percentages appear to be higher than normal.  I would put this down to the cold, dry weather experienced during  May and June, albeit they were below average for rainfall.  In fact at present we are some 200mm below our average rainfall for this time of the year.  This does translate to low readings on soil moisture probes deep down the profile.

This is the variety Viognier grafted onto Cabernet Sauvignon and showing even bud burst and good strong growth. Even the imature bunches can be seen.

There is some uneveness in Viognier growth at this stage with some vines only just breaking dormancy. 

You can notice the grey/white material tied around the vine trunk.  This is a dacron material aimed at preventing climbing insects like the ravaging garden weevil due to emerge from the soil at any time.  This approach avoids spraying as they cannot climb past the band - well that’s the theory!!!!!!!

Soon it will be disbudding time. Until next time - bring on the rain.

Vineman 

This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 4:52 pm and is filed under viticulture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.