Summer of 25 update and drought

At long last the sound last evening and into this morning of a good rain. We ran outside last night to make sure it was real. After nearly 2 months of complete drought here in the County, and a lot of scorching heat, the rain is so welcome.

The vineyards have been approaching that fine line between good and not so good in many parts of the County. While grapes like the heat and some stress, the vines do need some water from time to time. The drought conditions also bring out the pests, and in our own gardens we are dealing with a Japanese beetle infestation as the bugs go searching for water and devour the leaves.

The picture below depicts perfectly what starts to happen to grapevines with a complete lack of water. While these grape clusters are very healthy for this point in the season, the leaf canopy is starting to suffer. The leaves begin to dry out and die from the bottom up. And in the County where the grape clusters and trunks are down so low to the ground (due to our winter vine cover practices), this can spell impending disaster if the drought and heat continue. The grape clusters do need some protection from the sun and the heat, and the leaf canopy is what provides that. As some point grape growth could slow or stop meaning less juice to produce wine later.

While irrigation can help, we have also hit the stage of this drought where wells are drying up around the County, and everyone is starting to ration their water use. Maybe hard to understand when you look at the map and see a land mass surrounded by a great lake. But that limestone slab underneath is more like a water sponge than it is an enabler of underground aquifers. Wineries are now filling water totes and driving trucks/tractors through the vineyards to manually water the vines.

So here’s hoping that we can repeat the 12 hour rain event we just had at least once per week going forward this season.