Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2009 June

Hello,

The vintage of the year continues to roll right along. We have a nice fruit set and the canopy is looking healthy, but a bit disheveled. Of course I only really see it during the day, who knows what is going on out there after dark. One thing I do know is we have a pair of juvenile Redtail hawks this year. They are certainly helping with our with the rodent issues. I don't mind helping them out, but I wish they would return my traps.

Here are the numbers. We have recorded about 369 degree days for the month of June, providing a total of 568 degree days since the beginning of the growing season on April 1st. This compares with 254 degree days last June and a comparative total of 462 degree days. During June, our highest high was 92.5 and our lowest high was 88.0. Our lowest low was 41.7 and our highest low was 43.9 degrees Fahrenheit.

The rainfall for June was 1.45 inches and was about 0.81 inches more than last June’s rain of 0.64. Rainfall since April 1st through June 30th was 7.00 inches, and is 4.30 inches more than last year’s Q2 accumulation of 2.70 inches. Every inch of rain is about 27,000 gallons of water per acre, or about 18.6 gallons per vine.

We are finishing our canopy management of clipping the third set of catch wires into place. I will begin hedging and mowing early next week, and will follow on with leaf pulling. The fruit set seems very uniform, with most berries on a cluster all the same size. I am hopeful this will promote uniform ripening of the cluster.

Ernie