VARIETY FOCUS: CHARDONNAY

  In the late 1980’s, as sales of varietal wines began to overtake those of blended wines, Chardonnay emerged from minor importance to displace Chenin blanc and Colombard as the major white wine variety in California.  It has since proven to be adaptable to...

NATURAL LAWS AND VINEYARD MANAGEMENT

Vineyards are populations of grapevines and associated organisms supported by air, water, and soil resources.  As such, they constitute ecosystems or perhaps more precisely, agro-ecosystems.  While vineyard ecosystems are artificial, rather than natural, they are...

SOME COMMON VITICULTURAL BAND-AIDS

Solving vineyard problems can be a complex and time consuming task, as is deciding how to correct them.  The most obvious remedy is sometimes taken to be the most practical while, in reality, it treats the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem.  In this...

TO HEDGE OR NOT TO HEDGE?

Hedging is a summer pruning method involving the removal the distal or apical ends of shoots.  In some parts of the world hedging is called topping or tipping.  Like all pruning methods, hedging depresses vine growth vigor and capacity.   It does so by reducing the...

GRAPEVINE SHOOT THINNING FOR MULTIPLE BENEFITS

If shoot thinning were a book or movie it might be entitled Pruning: The Final Chapter.  Quite simply, shoot thinning, which is the selective removal of shoots, enhances the viticultural effects of pruning and in some ways, finishes the pruning job.  Here we will...