Wow, with all the rain we've had, suddenly it seems everyone has mildew (the downy kind. so far). At first, we thought, we were the only ones, that we had royally screwed up. Having missed the first window to spray while we were off having fun in the US, but it seems that everyone has it, even the conventional farmers, the ones who have already applied 5 systemic "treatments" still have some mildew. It
seems it's unavoidable this year. But it's still scary. At first it attacks the leaves and makes little light yellow circles on the leaves, then it starts to spread and it can even eventually get to the grapes. That is bad, very bad. It essentially makes the individual grapes and/or the entire bunch shrivel up and fall off. Ugh ! This is the first time we have had to deal with this kind of situation, up until now, it's been fairly easy, dry hot summers not much rain, even not enough. Now we have more than enough.
Last week it was beautiful, sunny with a good Mistral blowing, but today it rained all afternoon, and we're supposed to have thunderstorms tonight. There has been talk of hail. Please, please, no hail, that would be the icing on the cake.
As you can see, the vines have now flowered, these pictures were taken about a week ago, so we should
be in the safe zone, but hail could ruin it all! I'll keep you posted!
we're keeping our fingers crossed for you and all the other winemakers out there. 2008 looks like an incredibly challenging year all round!
Posted by: Robert McIntosh | June 17, 2008 at 11:40 AM