 |
||
 |
In October the vines start to grow in earnest. |  |
 |
 |
And already visitors arrive. Yellow-crested White Cockatoos to sharpen their beaks by chewing off hundreds of young vine shoots, |
 |
vine moth caterpillars, still tiny, to eat the tender leaves, |  |
| and other creatures great and small to find food and shelter. |  |
 |
 |
Jacky Winter is just one of the several species of birds breeding in the vineyard. |  |
 |
Rabbits multiply, too. | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Flower buds are now clearly visible.
|
 |
| Now the most important sprays against fungal diseases have to be put on. Obviously spraying is a difficult balancing act between risk of total crop loss and the destruction of the natural balance. |
 |
Fortunately we never have to use insecticides. Left to themselves insects seem to find their own balance with little damage done to the vines or the grapes. |
 |
 |
However, without fungicides we would not have any grapes for winemaking. Needless to say that we use the softest options available. |
 |
Fungicides have to be carefully alternated as resistant strains of fungi can develop quickly. Some fungicides can only be used once a year. |
 |
 |
||
| © Sarsfield Estate |  |
|