Saturday, May 15, 2010

Slow, fast, slow......



Slow, fast, slow…. That’s the way the weather impacts on the growing cycle of the vines. This year, after a long cold winter, growth is about 10 days behind normal. However, in the last few days, the vines have really put on a growth spurt! We were amazed to discover that they can grow up to 2cm a day! If you haven’t done the correct pruning by now, it’s all too late as the vine will waste energy on useless shoots.

One interesting thing we noticed this year is the position of the flower/fruit on each shoot. It’s normally after the third leaf, but on many vines, it seems to be after the fifth leaf this year. Depending on who you ask, this is either a major disaster, a sign of global warming, or nothing to worry about at all. It is amazing however that it’s something that is replicated throughout all the vines – Mother Nature moves in uniform ways. What we do know is that the vines were hit by serious hail and storms around this time last year and a lot of damage was done. Maybe the strange flower/fruit position is due to the impact of the storms on the vines and it’s now manifesting itself….

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