Barreca Vineyards

Barreca Vineyards

From Vine to Wine since 1986

Posts filed under Grape Growing

Soil Testing

Our vineyard went from a backyard hobby to a major enterprise in 2004 when I had some logging done to make a sunnier space for more grape plants. I had some soil testing done soon after that but didn’t worry about fertility.  After almost 20 years of dithering about getting some baseline numbers and setting… (read more)

The Grass is Greener

The Grass is Greener With this very wet Spring everything looks especially green.  The green color is from chlorophyll, the molecule critical to photosynthesis, which turns sunlight into plant energy, specifically sugars.  Looking at the chest-high grass and purple vetch which has taken over the aisles between my rows of grape vines, I had to… (read more)

How Sweet It Is

How Sweet It Is The quest for evidence-based information is ongoing.  So are the efforts to dismiss it. As Yuval Noah Harari pointed out, science is based on the admission of ignorance.  With science, as soon as you think you know something new, other scientists are going to poke holes in your ideas and try… (read more)

Rooting

When I was a younger and less knowledgeable gardener I tried starting apple trees by planting seeds.  Johnny Apple Seed right?!  It didn’t go very well and I asked Larry Geno, who owned Bear Creek Nursery at the time about how to do that.  He laughed in my face and proceeded to tell me that… (read more)