The fruit set has been very good and we are very optimistic about the new harvest! The canopies look healthy and early yield estimates are higher than average, which would make this the third consecutive large crop - something almost unprecedented. Of course that's if everything stays perfect until harvest, as many factors can still affect the crop size and quality.
 |  Only a week after field grafting, the first leaves are appearing already and they all look very healthy! |
The new clusters are healthy and nicely sized
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I learned a little viticulture lesson that I found really interesting! The vine has a perfect flower, in that it has both the female part (ovary) and male part (stigma) in it - therefore it is self-pollinating. The flower also has a cap over it, which it sheds after fruit set.
Our insectary, pictured in my last blog, attracts insects that will pollinate other flowers, but not the vine flowers. Still, it helps create diversity - one of the principles of Biodynamics.
In the picture to the left you can see a cluster after fruit set, with some brown caps still on, as well as some dead flowers (brown dots) that never were pollinated so they didn't become fruit.
If you shake the cluster or pass your hand over it, both the caps and the flowers that didn't make it fall off. Mom showed me and it's very neat!
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