While the boys were at cricket practice I had a chance to pay my tiny vineyard a much needed visit. It's gone a bit crazy, with some vigorous growth, but a healthy crop is developing. I really need some guide wires to lift the foliage (I'm on a single wire system at the moment) and expose the bunches. 
Gave it a liberal spray of sulfur to counter the powdery mildew, which alas has already started to appear on a few of the bunches and leaves. The disease pressure is so high in the UK that you really can't miss a trick. I need to visit more often, I reckon. Anyway, I'm going to put some proper trellising in this winter so that I can lift the foliage and produce a vertical canopy. Then it will look like a proper vineyard.
posted by Jamie @ 2:41 PM
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3 Comments:
Jamie
What pruning/training method do you use?
Presumably you try to get the growth quite high off the ground, it might be intesting to try one of the more modern approaches, like a high form of Smart-Dyson, rather than the high cordon that many seem to use.
Ian
I've grown the vines up to about 3 feet (because of the frost risk) and then trained the canes horizintally along a single wire. Some have become cordons, but this isn't ideal in a cool climate like this. The problem was, when I started, I hadn't got much idea about what I was doing. What I'll implement in the winter is a set of catch wires at about 5 feet, which I'll bring in during July to lift the canopy, exposing the fruit zone. Simple but I hope it will work. My aim is to get the vines into a sort of natural balance. I'm not a huge fan of Smart Dyson and Scott Henry.
Are those MTs?
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