Being the independent sort, and since I really want to get going on put up my interior posts, and since my manual post driver doesn’t have a alrge enough diameter opening to accommodate my stell trellis post, I bought a Rhino air powered post driver off ebay. Actually I called them directly and got them to lower the price $50 to $700, which includes the valve kit, hoses, etc.. everything I need to get going. It’s the smaller PD-45 unit, but it’s a one man job and that’s what I wanted something that I can play around with to get these posts in the ground. I think it shipped out via UPSA today. Here’s a picture:

Now the only problem is how do I power it? Rhino says I need 30 cfm and 90 PSI…that’s not as easy as it sounds. Rhino says there is a portable gasoline powered unit that will do it…however All Star Rentals only has a 185 CFM diesel unit…somehow they think they can regulate that to work for me. Rhino said that some of their customer uses a 15 cfm unit with 100 psi and then use a 60 gallon tank with it? I’m new to all this mechanical stuff…I think I’ll get it to work somehow, but at what cost?

It’s a learning experience, that’s for sure. Price on that? Priceless.

A quick walk through my newly planted vineyard has shown that my first three rows of Kentucky 31 fescue are coming up! Looks pretty thick too. I’m pumped! More rain is scheduled for Monday, so I might try and rake in another few rows tomorrow. It’s getting a little dry, we could use some rain!

Grapes are looking good. No signs of disease. Need to spray tomorrow since it looks like rain on Monday and I haven’t done it since the 18th. The deer are present, but I picked up some more industrial strength deer repellant from Tractor Supply. It seems to keep them at bay. But it’s expensive and not viable on a large scale.

I found the 6′ bamboo rods at Big Lots for $3.99 for 6 of them, which is pretty expensive. But on a recent trip to Tractor Suppply, I foiund the exact same 6′ rods for $2.99. I bought a bunch and cut them down to 5′ to finish staking my 2nd year vines. They are getting pretty big, with 2-3 foot of new shoot growth. I still have two more rows left to do.

However, before I can do those rows, I needed to put up the row posts. I bought 30 standard 8′, non-galvanized, trellis posts from S&H this week. I figured I’d pound them in myself. But nooooooooo….the width of the posts is about an 1/8′ larger then my little post driver. A quick check of lowes and tractor supply shows that they don’t make them any larger. However, I’ve just spent the last hour searching the Internet and eBay and I may have found a solution!

It seems that a few people make some pretty spiffy spring powered post drivers which accommodate larger posts. So that may be an option, but I need to measure the width of the tpost tomorrow. Another option which I am seriously considering is an air powered, one man post driver. It seems they cost about a $1000. You might ask why would I spend a $1000? Well I like the mobility of the product. And I like that it can be operated by one man. I like to do things spur of the moment. The product specs say that it will drive my trellis post in one minute or less. That’s not bad. I see them for sale on ebay, with many active bidders, so there’s a resale market for them as well.

I am going to measure the width of the post tomorrow and call the company with a couple questions. If I can get it here in a few days, I might order one!

Here are pdf instructions for Grape Petiole Sampling. Once the samples are collected, go to this link for where to send them.

Jen and I skipped this year, we had too much work to do on our own vineyard. But I’d be interested to hear comments from anyone else who went. What did you think of it? The weather was great. I’ve heard there were quite a few people there. Let me know your thoughts!

Brent

Things are looking pretty good at Villa Kleinheksel. I’ve been able to seed about 5 rows, both with Kentucky 31 and Red creeping Fescue. I don’t know if either will do well due to planting in the spring, but if we get enough rain throughout the next several weeks they might germinate and do well. It will be interesting.

My second year plants are growing well, far far better than last year. So well in fact that I am putting up bamboo rods to train the remaining rows. The plants in those rows weren’t vigorous enough last year to warrant the effort to put up the wires and rods to train them.

The last two rows, while showing definite improvement over last year, are still a bit slower than the other three rows. In looking at them today, I realized that the grass had not been killed back as far from the plants as the first three rows, thus I think there is more competition for nutrients on those last two rows. I plan on laying down some more herbicide this week, as those plants need to get caught up!

Note: Remember this URL for late:

http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/modfr/26459701.html

I didn’t do that great a job of pruning this year on the plants that didn’t reach the wire. So while I am getting great growth, there are a lot of shoots…many of which are close to the ground. This causes me a problem for disease control, as the canopy is close to ground….so even though it may not be recommended (is it?) I am pruning off all the shoots that are groing horizontally and close to the ground…this opens up the bottom of the canopy considerably and also I’m hopng that it allows the plant to focus it’s growth on the remaining shoots. I am also removing any potential clusters on those plants, as they need to be focusing on buiding a healthy canopy to fuel further shoot and root growth.

All valuable lessons, as it would be very time and labor intensive to take these extra steps in a large scale viticultural application. By keeping your vineyard weed free and allowing the plants to be adequately clear of competition for nutrients they should reach the wire. With proper training and pruning, your canopy should be open enough in the 2nd year to avoid the time, labor and plant health risk of early season pruning.

That’s why Jen and I spent many hours this this weekend hoeing out all the weeds arounf our new vines. The Cab. franc are doing great, maybe 4 plants that failed to bud out. The Cabernet Sauvignon are a little further behind as is expected, but doing great. The merlot, barbera and carminere are haning in there..they were planted a little later and are at a lower elevation in the plot, so we’ll have to see how they do…overall I’m happy with the way things are looking.

I hope to get the end posts in the ground later this week, maybe the t-posts as well. It’s easy to lose control of things really quickly, whether it be weeds or disease or pests or training due to excessing plant vigor…they all pose problems when one is already working two different jobs!

My my have I ever been busy! I’ve been working nonstop with about four different coders throughout the world trying to get several of my sites implemented with new technology, and it’s been tough. Not too mention my new grapevines needed an intervention yesterday, which literally took me all day!

Because of my ignorance of not knowing to get my cover crop in the ground last fall, I planted 700 plants this spring in a field that was void of a cover crop. It looked good, nice and smooth. Well the weeds started growing very fast. I found it difficult to keep up, even when armed with a helper and roundup! It’s just too much land to keep weed free.

Lesson #1: Always put down the cover crop first, then a few weeks before you are to plant, kill back a 3 foot strip for each row, drill the holes and then let the dead grass serve as mulch.

Oh well, that’s how I learn. Thankfully my neighbor has a 48 HP diesel with a 5 foot cultivator. Peter Ness and the owner of the tractor, Allen Lyon, came over and taught me how to operate the tractor and cultivator.

I am not intimidated by much, by the thought of driving a large tractor with a 5′ cultivator down 8′ rows, was not that appealing. Actually it concerned me greatly. This is an old tractor, and even though it ran great, it has a few nuances that I was afraid might get me in a jam. Thoughts of cultivating over a row of vines were dancing in my head.

In the end however, with lots of hand holding and patience from Peter and Allen, I managed to get the hang of it! Farm equipment for someone who has never even operated a stick shift in a car, can be pretty intimidating. People die on these things. You have to be careful. So to conquer one’s fear and to experience something new, was liberating. It’s why I decided to grow grapes. Growing grapes for me is something that brings me closer to the Earth and closer to my roots. Sure, I want to grow great grapes. But at this time, I just want the grapes to survive. I want them to bear fruit and to look healthy. I want to practice sound viticultural practices. Most importantly, I want to learn how to farm..and it’s been quite the crash course.

I would have assumed a 5′ cultivator would easily fit down a 8′ row, and it generally does, but it can still be tight. It’s not nearly as easy as you might think. My dreams of a 6′ seeder have been dashed, it would never work on 8′ rows.

But we got it done. The weeds have been cultivated under and now it’s just amatter of working down the rows and clearning out those weeds, which we had been doing already. With the ground all tilled and weed free, I thought it best to put down a cover crop. Can you seed a field now? I don’t know, but the alternative of cultivating till fall doesn’t appeal to me.

So I picked up a 50lb bag of Kentucky 31 at Tractor Supply and hand seeded three rows yesterday. I raked a little bit of dirt over it and then it rained about .35″ today, so my hope is that it will grow stong and beat out the weeds…but your guess is as good as mine!

I imagine I’ll be fighting them for awhile. Somehow I’ll make it though…by fall those grapes will be looking pretty!

Good news, I found another farmer near me who has a 9″ post driver! We”ll see if that thing has enough power to drive my posts.

Tomorrow I am going to see if Frank Hobson has any Supra Grande Stakes. I need about 30 of them for my vines from last year. Those plants are growing so fast, I need to get the wires up, so I can train them properly…good news as I really need to get them up to the wire this year…to get them back on track after a less than stellar first year!

My neighbor took some pictures of my first stint operating a tractor, here ya go!

Joyce Rigby at Rigby Consulting (vineyard establishment consulting) gave me the name of Clay Tuttle and said he might have some post driving equipment, I left him a voicemail. Otherwise she normally uses Frank Hobson.

Yadkin Valley Vineyard & Fencing, Clay Tuttle does vineyard installations, spraying, harvesting, and all other vineyard job requirements. PO Box 1851 King, NC 27021, 336-399-6777.

So I’m thinking of purchasing a new post hole driver. I’m having difficulty tracking one down and it may be an ok investment to go out and buy one myself. Frank Hobson has one, and he does work for other vineyards driving posts, but his tractor is tied up cultivating tobacco until the fall.

Mark Greene used to have one, but I think he might have sold it. I know there is another guy in Mt. Airy who does some vineyard work, he might have one. So I guess I’d better explore those options first.

I’ll keep you posted (no pun tntended)

BAY AREA WINERIES CELEBRATE AS SUPREME COURT LIFTS BAN ON OUT-OF-STATE SHIPMENTS

By Jim Puzzanghera

Mercury News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON – California vintners toasted a U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday that went down as smooth as a fine cabernet: States must allow consumers to buy wine directly from out-of-state wineries if they allow such sales from in-state wineries.

The 5-4 decision in a hard-fought case that pitted the wine industry against the powerful alcohol beverage wholesalers and retailers could be a boon to California’s $15 billion-a-year wine industry. It especially could benefit small local wineries from Santa Cruz to Napa, where out-of-state visitors make up a large proportion of potential clients.

“Please raise your glasses,” Robert Koch, head of the Wine Institute, the California industry’s trade group, told the 80 people gathered for a luncheon at a Washington hotel Monday kicking off their annual lobbying trip. “I would like to toast the United States Supreme Court.”

The court’s decision does not immediately open access to consumers in the 23 states that still prohibit direct shipment of wine — ordered on the Internet, over the phone or while visiting wine-tasting rooms. But it specifically prohibits laws in eight of those states — Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Vermont — that treat out-of-state wineries differently from in-state ones.

Legislators in those states now will have to decide whether to allow their residents to receive direct shipments from any winery in the country or shut them off from all wineries, even the ones in their state. Fifteen states now do that.

The current laws that treat out-of-state wineries differently are discriminatory, said Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court’s majority in a case that specifically challenged New York and Michigan laws. Kennedy was joined by fellow justices Antonin Scalia, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

“If a state chooses to allow direct shipment of wine,” Kennedy wrote, “it must do so on evenhanded terms.”

Gloria Taylor, owner of Retz-laff Vineyards in Livermore, was among those hoisting a glass of California wine in Washington on Monday. Her small winery ships about 3 percent of its wine out of state, a figure she hopes will grow after Monday’s court ruling.

“We have people all over the country that call and want to order our wine, and it’s a sad thing to have to tell them we can’t ship to them,” she said. “It sort of levels the playing field for us.”

Bill Garrod, owner of Cooper-Garrod, a small Saratoga winery, says half his visitors are from out of state. He expects his Internet sales to at least double, to about 5 percent to 10 percent of total sales.

But alcoholic beverage wholesalers and retailers said Monday they were not giving up their fight against direct wine shipments, which undercut their business.

The court decision upheld the rights of states to regulate alcohol sales and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America will urge Michigan, New York and other states to simply prohibit all direct shipment of wine to consumers to avoid discriminatory treatment, said Karen Gravois Elliott, a spokeswoman for the group.

Nida Samona, chair of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, told reporters in a conference call Monday that she will urge her state legislature to do exactly that. A spokeswoman for Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she also supports stopping all direct wine sales. New York officials did not comment on the decision.

Michigan had argued it had more power over in-state wineries to physically check if they were selling to minors over the Internet and to shut them down if they were.

“We’re not telling people they can’t purchase alcohol. . . . we’re just saying you have to go through an agency and get regulated and have a license to do that,” Samona said. “That way, it gives us some power control and authority.”

But in the court’s majority decision, Kennedy said the states provided “little evidence for their claim that purchasing wine over the Internet by minors is a problem.”

Although the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which repealed Prohibition in 1933, gives states “broad power” to regulate alcohol sales, the so-called “commerce clause” in the main body of the Constitution prohibits states from discriminating against products from out of state, Kennedy wrote.

Justice Clarence Thomas was among the dissenters, arguing that earlier laws and the 21st Amendment clearly established the rights of states to prohibit direct shipments of wine from out of state. The other dissenters were Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O’Connor and John Paul Stevens.

George Garrick, chief executive of Wine.com, an online wine retailer, said direct wine sales account for less than 1 percent of business. The biggest wineries, such as Robert Mondavi, already have distribution networks set up in most states to facilitate sales legally in the states where wine sales are legal. The real impact, he said, will be at the small wineries that must use mail shipments to get their wines into other states.

Many of Santa Clara County’s wineries fit that description, including Cooper-Garrod.

But even more established wineries will benefit, says Paul Draper, winemaker and chief executive of the respected Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino. He said the ruling would allow Ridge to ship its limited but well-known premium estate wine, Montebello, for early tasting to customers at a 40 percent savings.

Ridge is established enough to have set up distributors in most states where shipping is possible. But distributors and retailers haven’t allowed it to set its own terms.

“It’s been a major injustice to limit the consumer in this way,” Draper said. “This is incredible news,” he said of the ruling.

Here are the posts I bought last year: 8′ Supra Grande Stake. you can get them for $7.00 a piece from Orchard Valley Supply. They are hot dipped galvanized for the first couple feet:

and here is a picture of the seed drill I’d like: