North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

After nearly 2 months of nonstop rain I'm weeks behind on getting the
new vineyard installation under control.  Giant ragweed is 6-8 feet
high in some places, rye grass is 5 feet high & lambs quarters is so
tall & woody that my string mower won't bring it down.  My one
observation is that hands down the healthiest, largest & tallest vines
are the ones that are the most buried by surrounding plants.  The
vines that are in the open with little or no competition are sometimes
a third the size & suffering the most from chlorosis.  The tall growth
is working as a nurse crop encouraging the vines to go upward,
protecting them from the winds & extreme sun & also buffering the huge
amounts of rain we've had (22 inches since June 1, the average in the
time span is around 11 inches).  Certainly not very practical
information & something I would ever recommend, but also I must say
that I worried far too much that I was losing vines because I didn't
have the mowing under control & that is definitely not the case.

~mIEKAL