In the Vineyard


Early-season indication of uneven budbreak.


GARY STRACHAN


Yield, quality ride a teeter-totter Both require finding the right balance between numerous key factors. By Gary Strachan


season which leads up to the current vintage. The greatest of these is vine balance.


I


wish I could recommend an ultimate “never fail”method to grow grapes. It would be so satisfying to tell my clients that they will always have great quality Pinot Noir if they grow it north of Summerland and crop at three tons per acre, or they will get wonderful Riesling if they crop at six tons per acre in Kelowna. If only . . .


Yield and quality are distant relatives, not siblings. The close relatives are soil type, soil microbiology, vineyard location, slope, orientation, nutrition, rootstock, and irrigation. It’s a big family. Toss in a few distant cousins, such as training and trellis style, and yield can be doubled with little or no impact on quality.


These factors, along with the grape variety and desired wine style, set the fundamental productivity for a vineyard. There are other, more subtle factors as well that must be considered during the previous


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2015 27


Yield and quality ride a teeter- totter. Photosynthesis produces glucose, and glucose can be converted into anything the vine requires to grow and produce fruit. You, the farmer, have a lot of control over where the glucose and its derivatives are deposited.


The obvious first choice would be a good yield of fruit, but we must also ensure that the vine has enough root to support water and mineral uptake, and enough canopy to provide leaf area for photosynthesis. The teeter-totter ride begins. In a semi-arid region such as the Okanagan, irrigation control is the key to vine balance. Early-season growth is rapid, and full irrigation


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36