It's a busy and crucial time in the greening vineyards, as Kobus van Ierop describes

This time of the year the vineyards are beautiful - a brilliant green colour, growing strongly and looking promising.  

This year we've had strange symptoms on some of the shiraz blocks as the soils never warmed up properly after winter, with little root activity, although the vines are growing well on their reserves. But it leads to magnesium and other deficiencies showing in the leaves – on top of some of the worst uneven budding I have seen in years in shiraz.

Spring started cool and with more rain in October than other years in some areas. No reports yet of serious downy and powdery mildew infections yet, although spots of downy have been noticed in some vineyards.

Now we are waiting for the heat and the winds to arrive. This will dry out the soil and put a strain on the vigorous growth, but also start stressing the vines.

Work done in the vineyards this time of the year is crucial for the quality of the crop in February of March at harvest.

All blocks have hopefully had their suckering done by now (when some shoots are removed to get more light into the canopy). Wires are put into place to ensure a vertical canopy (if the vineyard is trained and not growing as a bush vine). The wind has damaged vines where wires were not lifted in time and valuable shoots were blown of.

October 10 is not called Kalenderdag without reason - this time of year snoutbeetles appear in the vineyards, chewing their way happily through young shoots (once the berries are formed the beetles start dipping into them as well).

Dripper lines are being cleaned, checked and prepared for irrigation - if any is needed. We flatten or mow the cover crop between the rows if there is a threat that soils are drying out too fast. Thousands of little wasps have been released  to control mealy bug. The females lay their eggs in the mealy bug which eventually die off – this is a great alternative to chemical control of mealy bug.

I really wish I had a team of ducks in the vines this year to gobble up all the snails – would be nice to get them in exchange for the baboons.

GM prospects