Hardscrabble Journal

Just Enough Rain

Winegrowers prefer a dry July. New shoot growth slows just at the right time. The vines can then turn their attention to ripening the grapes rather than producing additional unnecessary leaves. But it can be too dry. And it has been too dry lately.

Newly planted vines do not yet have deep roots that can survive on available subsoil water. They’ve not been looking very happy lately. We don’t have irrigation, but we have started to laboriously water our baby vines.

Naturally, as soon as we finished watering it rained. We’ve received about an inch of rain over the last few days. Not a lot, but enough to refresh the young vines, not to mention the grass and weeds. The soil is still quite dry. This puts us in the position of not being sure if we want more rain or not. This uncertainty reflects an ideal situation. Its rare that a farmer doesn’t have a request into Mother Nature.

Perhaps targeting rain only on the young vineyard blocks, but not the mature vines? That may be asking too much.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: July 24, 2020