Week of May 12

This is a much anticipated week in the TAProots vineyard.  We have been out of production for Riesling grapes as we have spent the last several years improving the soil of our vineyard.  This  has entailed tons of old hay laid between the trellis rows to decompose and be worked into the heavy clay soil.  The old vines, many with a disease called crown gall, were removed.  Last week, 675 holes were augered to plant one new vine every five feet.  The vines with a specific rootstock and Reisling variety engrafted to it arrived from AA Vineyards in Western NY.  On Thursday, Bob Fingar, his son Austin, and five hourly agricultural guest workers (legal) launched the planting.  I got there halfway in the process.  The 675 bare root vines are planted in the holes with graft junction 1-2 inches above the soil level.  A bamboo stick is pushed in next to the vine, and a blue tube is placed over the vine, the bamboo is tied to the trellis wire, and dirt is shoveled around the blue tube base.  The blue tube let’s in the right spectrum of light for the young vines, protects the buds and new growth from deer and other varmits, and allows herbicides to control the weeds.  The result is a forest of blue tubes in nice rows, sign of TAProots returning to its growth of grapes for first class white wine.  A great day at TAProots.