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Showing posts from July, 2010

Wired for Training

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Bob and I continued to add hard black locust posts to the vineyard.  I ordered the 12 gauge steel wire on the web from Ace Hardware.  We wired the 12 gauge four feet off the ground and the 16 gauge two feet up.  I tied the vines that reach the four foot high wire to the wire using gardening twine.  As of today, fewer than 10 of the 100 vines reach that height.      The first casualty appears to be vine on the fourth row from the bottom.  When I came up this weekend, all the leaves were brown and wilted.  I cut off the leaves in hopes that something might be salvaged.  We are under drought-like conditions in the Hudson Valley this summer, with very little rain in June and almost none in July.  The plants are also being attacked by the Japanese beetle and fat green leaf-like caterpillars.  I am trying to avoid pesticides this year, but I may have to cave in if the damage gets much worse.