Sunday, April 06, 2008

This week: 4th. April 2008

Weather Report Week Ending 04/4/08
Maximum Temperature for the week 26.9C (80F) on Tue. 1 reading above our monthly average of 21.8C.
Minimum Temperature for the week 3.3C (38F) on Sun. 2 readings above our monthly average of 8.7C.
Rainfall for the Week 14.4mm (41 points) 4 days of rainfall recorded.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another cooler week for us. At last we have recorded some reasonable rainfall. Thursday we recorded 11.6mm which is already half of the average for April. This goes some way towards making up for the very dry start to the year, so far. We now need it to keep raining all winter, preferably well above average.



This week in the vineyard:
A lot has happened this week, now that we have had some rain. All of the poultry manure has been spread and we have now started disking it in. As part of this pass we are also spraying a knock down herbicide under the vines to start cleaning up the weeds. I will be trying something a little different this coming season. We will only be cultivating every second row, in the past we cultivated every row each year. I have started cultivating every alternate row, the one with the manure spread in it. Once we get some more rain the cover crop will go in that row (using a power harrows seeder). The other row will not be touched, with a cultivator until next year. The photo shows a row that has been cultivated and is now ready to be planted with a cover crop - as soon as we get some more rain.

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