November 2001
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Bug Attack Last month was spent establishing a routine of care for the vines. The daily tasks were familiar now and the teams were becoming skilled and efficient. Now that all the strings were on the new vines the strongest leader shoot was selected and tied to the string. Once this shoot is up to the cordon all others except one (in case of disaster) will be pruned off. This single shoot will be the source of life for the canopy and the grapes it will bear. Weeding was a constant theme while the damp spring weather continued. The days were warm and overcast, with showers. This creates the humid conditions that are perfect for the downy mildew feared by all fruit growers. We were hearing reports that this was already spreading through Stellenbosch like a wild fire due to the wettest spring in memory. We are not affected yet (touch wood) as the air is less humid, less still and cooler than down on the valley floor. The other major factor was our isolation from other vineyards. Once mildew is established there is no organic way of getting rid of it. Even farms that can spray fungicide would lose 40% of their crop if an attack was bad. The only organic cure is prevention, which means vigilance. The microclimate in the vineyard must be monitored and reports from from the neighboring area examined carefully. When the conditions are right for mildew and it has been reported in the area an application of Bordeaux mix must be applied.
Organic farming is more labour intensive than non-organic. We were employing 20 staff to look after our vines, a ration of staff to vines way above anything contemplated by our non-organic peers. We are expecting this to go down as the new vines are bedded in, but only by 4 or so. We were also keen to make sure that the applications of Bordeaux mix were not excessive. The main ingredient is Copper Sulphate (allowed under organic certification rules) which cannot be good in large quantities in the long term. To that end we were applying this, as with all our other organic applications, using hand pumps. This may seem madness to most farmers who would use the tractor towed blower to do the job. The problem with the blower is just that - it blows a mist of fine spray out. Where we are the wind catches it and spreads it far and wide. This is not only a waste of money but it may not be going where it is needed. It is indiscriminate and there is no knowing what the long term effects of these heavy applications might be. Therefore until an alternative to copper sulphate is found we decided to do targeted applications by hand, unless there is an emergency application required. This means even more careful monitoring of conditions. We know one farmer who delayed by 12 hours and was struck. Last years blocks were growing well in the warm wet conditions and the guys were going through the rows pruning and trellising them by hand to control the growth. Again a machine would have been quicker, but less discriminate. We started to see small beetles eating the leaves and decided to try the organic repellant Expeller that had been successful in combating an aphid attack that we had in the windbreaks. The nice thing was that the aphids were reduced to an acceptable level but not eliminated and ladybirds (their natural predator) were still seen. An insecticide would have wiped them all out. These beetles are locally known as bloubessie which belong either to the stinkbug or beetle families but there are numerous varieties with this common name. The next bug to attack was bollworm. This is the American Bollworm that destroys cotton crops in India and Pakistan, but was doing a pretty good job on our vines. The Expeller was having no effect on bloubessie or bollworm. The inorganic answer would have been a parathyroid application. Agro-organics supplied us with a new repellant mixture which they assured us would do the trick. There were certain hotspots of infestation so we targeted them with the hand pumps. We don't know if they just went through their life cycle or the warmer drier weather at the end of the month killed them off or our applications were effective, but at end of the month they disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Damage was not widespread but it gave us a scare. Fortunately the vines were growing well so they soon recovered. In mid month we were hit by gales from the East - our worst nightmare. It was so strong it was blowing a significant amount of water out of the dam and eroding the wall. The guys had to place boulders all along the dam wall edge where the waves were breaking to prevent this erosion. Back breaking and slow work. The new vines weren't damaged by the wind as they were close to the ground but the tender leaves on the old vines were scorched. Mulch application continued all through the month and was eventually finished after 8 weeks of constant work. This seems to be a great success. It isn't being blown away from where it was put. The earth beneath is cool and moist and no weeds are growing through or on it. The vines that were lucky enough to receive theirs first were definitely growing better.
We had survived our first major pest attack and the weeds were under control, and there was no mildew. Perhaps we were lucky, but we hadn't resorted to pesticides or fertilizer or fungicides or herbicides. Everything was growing, if anything growing too much! There was an interesting article in The Times of London that was brought to our attention. It was by Jane MacQuitty and said; "The claims made by organic producers that their vines are "grown entirely without chemical herbicides, fungicides, pesticides or fertilizers...are fermented and finished off without chemical or synthetic products...and that their wines actually taste better than anybody else's" are all "so much organic hogwash"". The challenge is to prove people like her wrong and I think we have gone a step in that direction already. The next step is to try to eliminate copper sulphate in the vineyard and sulphur in the cellar. Maybe that will never be achieved but at least we are trying. And of course we will produce a wine that tastes better and is better for you than those that use chemicals extensively. That is why we are doing what we are doing.
At the end of November the temperature was in the 30's, the air was dry and the sky was clear. The bugs had gone and the mildew never came. Summer had arrived and all was well! Copyright © 2000 Tulbagh Solutions. All rights reserved.
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