Touriga Nacional Ripening

Approach to Grape Growing

For the last few years, I have been improving the quality of my vineyard soil—especially in the area of beneficial organisms.

Examples:

2002-3 Compost Tea (CT) grant study with Soil Foodweb, Inc

2005-9 Using Effective Microorganisms (EM)

I have also been adding humic acid, liquid fish, molasses, etc. with the CT & EM as organism foods for the last 7 years.

My objective in doing this is to:

1) Improve disease resistance of soil by having the beneficial organisms outcompete the disease organisms.

2) Improve vine health and disease resistance

3) Break-up clay in subsoil and deepen the topsoil

Results:

I moved away from compost tea because there was too much labor for the benefit (10 applications) and too much variation in the quality of tea.   But, in the 18 months I had used it, the soil improved as per soil organism analysis (improvements especially in fungal biomass and mycorrihizal percent). 

No data yet on using the EM other than observation. Great growth and great crop last two years; and better in 2007 even after severe Easter freeze.

In summary, I use organic methods below ground and conventional methods above ground.