In Summer 2011 tile drainage was done. Before that, to break up the hard soil pan Rudy Kasper deep ripped the entire land with 3’ long rippers in two perpendicular directions. We also leveled some low spots to get good water and air flow.
I was previously warned by soil test results that our soil has low pH which was a little too acidic. To increase the pH we needed to bring 120 tons of dolomite limestone and evenly spread on the soil. By asking around I found the contractor who came with his trucks equipped with spreaders and did the job easily.
Vine orders were placed in November 2011 for the first 6 acres to a Mennonite owned&operated nursery in N.O.T.L. The wholesale price was $2.85 per vine plus planting cost. Planting was scheduled for May 29th, 2012. I hired a vineyard manager named Claus Wolf. A thick German accented man with very calm and understanding nature. He brought an enormous tractor to prepare the land for planting. Preparing the land is not an easy feat. You need to disc many times so all the weeds dries out. Then he brought a 400 HP megatractor with a 12’ rototiller to fine the top 30 cm. When he was done if you walk on the land you were sinking with your own weight as the soil was like a jelly.
Then the Mennonite family patriach Abe that I ordered the vines came next day with another gigantic tractor. It had an attachement at the back that two Mexican workers were feeding a large planting wheel with vines. He was using a laser set up to make the rows straight like within 1 cm along a 400 meter long row. It took a day to plant 9,000 vines in two blocks.
A few days before planting Abe called me that we needed to trim the roots of the vines one by one and soak into cold water so they all have same length roots with a lot of water soaked.
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