Friday morning, June 5th, I was up early to take some pictures of the vineyard before the grafting. The cool weather we have had resulted in good vine growth. The frost-damaged portion of the vineyard had recovered nicely so the whole vineyard could be grafted.
At 6:30 am sharp the grafting team pulled in to the vineyard. The four grafters started by sharpening the grafting knives. The knives look like a small version of a barber's razor and are just as sharp!
The grafting began with the first four rows in the northwest corner of the vineyard. There are 1130 vines in the vineyard and the whole vineyard was complete by 11:30 am (no breaks). That's slightly less than a minute a vine. I tried taking pictures of the grafting process. It was difficult because the hands moved very quickly.
The grafting steps are:
1.) Pull rootstock vine over and place
under your knee.
2.) Slice a bud or two from the bud wood and place buds in your mouth to keep them moist.
3.) Make a small incision at the base of rootstock for sap drainage.
4.)Make a downward slice in rootstock about 6 inches above base and cut sliced material off.
5.) Place bud on the slice.
6.) Secure graft with white tape.
7.) Cut leafy growth from
rootstock about 1 inch above graft.
8.)Move to next vine.
One vine a minute for 5 hours on your knees in the sun!
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