Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/62522
WineEast High winds from Hurricane Irene bent the interior galvanized posts in a row of Norton vines (left) at Desert Rose Ranch & Winery in Hume, Va, in August. In April, a tornado ripped the roof off a processing facility, tank room and tractor shed at Linganore Winecellars (right) in Mount Airy, Md. • Don't overcrop your vines. Distribute clus- ters evenly in the fruit zone, and make certain that one cluster does not touch the next one. • Set up to sort fruit, in the vineyard, before the harvester goes through—and, if pos- sible, before the destemmer. • Talk with your winemaker throughout the grapegrowing season, as he or she has to make wine from the fruit you grow. —Mark Chien - SIHA YEAST - Vineyard Sanitation I've had several requests for advice on what to do with grape clusters that remain in the trel- lis, those that were not fit to be harvested for one reason or another. Clusters that were af- fected by disease organisms such as botrytis could serve as a source of inoculum for those diseases in the coming season. The conven- tional wisdom is to remove these clusters from the trellis so that they are not in close proximity to susceptible tissues next year. But should the clusters be dropped on the ground or removed from the vineyard and destroyed by burying, burning or composting? My own opinion—and our practice here at Winchester, Va.—is to remove the clusters from the vine and toss them in the grassy row middles where they can be mowed/shredded with the season's final cover crop mowing to hasten their decomposition. Notice that I said in the "row middles," not on the soil under the trellis, where decomposition might take Eastern Distributor for Beco Filter Sheets, Siha Yeast, EvOAK Oak Alternatives, Parker-dh Membranes, Chillers, N2 Generators, Zander Air Products Wines & Vines DeCeMBeR 2011 61 O AK ALTERNATIVES - BECOPAD - DECAN TERILE FILTRATION - WATER FILTRATIO T E R CENTRIFUGES - S N