![]() |
||
![]() |
Days are short now and nights long - the frogmouths are in their fluffy winter coats. |
Frogmouths are small owls, living mainly on insects like moths![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
All premium vineyards are hand-pruned. |
![]() |
The severity of pruning determines the relative size of next years crop. It is measured as the number of buds left on each vine. | ![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
put simply: a vine pruned to 10 buds will next year produce 10 strong shoots and 20 large bunches of grapes. The same vine pruned to 50 buds will have 50 short twigs and 100 small grapes of only a few berries. |
![]() |
|
The signs of last year's fungal attack![]() |
With hand-pruning it is possible to regulate these parameters quite closely. Machine pruned vines usually have many buds and many small bunches. These cannot be hand-harvested, so no sorting or selecting of grapes is possible, and quality may be compromised. |
thousands of tiny spiders this month ![]() |
Case moths mature in their silken case reinforced with the leaf stalks of last years vine leaves. and last years abandoned bird nest, carefully tied with the hair stolen from our cow's tails. |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
© Sarsfield Estate | ![]() |