Down the Row

One can almost believe in the concept of karma the way that things work out sometimes. Several "Down the Row" columns ago, I repeated a story told by Ronald Regan about farmers and rain, and I guess I'm reaping what I sowed.

After the wonderful wet winter, the rain has continued to come and how! We've only run the irrigation system for fertilizer and chemical injection so far, and I don't know when we'll need to turn it on again. As of this writing, we've had 7 straight days of significant rain and the forecast is for eight more days before we see a hot sunny day. Thankfully, we finished a fungal spray just about 36 hours before the rain started, so we're okay so far, but we'll be watching for a break in the weather to get the tractor and sprayer back in the vineyard as soon as possible.

Looking on the bright side, the reason that we're worried about spraying is that we've got a nice crop of fruit hanging out there in the vineyard, and we'll have plenty for our own estate wines and have a good amount for some other lucky winery to use in their 2010 vintage! Plus, all this rain is helping the vineyard sections that have been hard hit by late freezes the last few years (and the 2,4D exposure) to recover rapidly. Happy days!