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The
vines operations
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Lifting
of tree stumps
During
October, we extract the vines in the plots of land which owe
to be planted. These plots of land will be at rest for 5 years
at least, we shall cultivate cereal to do a rotation of
culture.
Plantations
At
the end of April or the beginning of May we proceed to the
plantation of the plots of land prepared previous years. The
density of plantation is 4 000 vines by hectare. The rows of
vineyard have a space of 2,25 m and vines are distant 1.10 m
on the row.
Replacement
of the missing plantations
Regularly
feet of vines die for various reasons (mechanical
destructions, blow of lightning, competition of the
surroundings). Every year, we replace them. It is also a
qualitative and quantitative factor (if 10 % feet of vines are
missing, the staying 90 % should produce 10 % more!).
C’est aussi un élément qualitatif (s’il manque 10% de
pieds de vigne, les 90% restant devront produire 10% de
plus !).
The pruning
The
pruning starts at the beginning of November to finish at the
beginning of April. A pre-cutting is made beforehand to
facilitate the task to the workers. The whole estate is led on
wire, the pruning is of type " cordon of royat ".
Vine shoots are crushed by a girobroyeur and buried in the
ground where they are going to decompose to give some natural
organic fertilizer necessary for the growth of vegetation. The
electric clippers work with batteries carried in a belt.
As a rough guide, to imagine the dimension of the task let us
do a small mathematical exercise: there are 4.000 feet by
hectare and the domain contains 72 hectares, that means
cutting 288.000 feet on which there are an average of 6 vine
shoots the result is an approximate total of 1.728.000 knocks
of clippers (the truth is close to the double!).
Tie-up
The
whole domain is established on wire. It facilitates the
maintenance of the vines and improves the quality of the
production.
In every new plantation the tie-up is renewed. This
reconstruction is made in may of the year that follows the
plantation. We opted for drilled piquets 1,80 meters high with
holes every 10 centimeters what allows us to adjust the height
of the threads exactly.
Wires are unwound 4 by 4 by means of a tractor. At the end of
row piquet with a disc is buried as deep as 1 meter. The wires
are mobile, they are raised manually in May and lowered during
the pruning.
The tie-up undergoes regularly damages generally mechanical,
we should so proceed to the repairs during May.
Fastening
We
are in a region where the mistral (dominant wind) can be very
strong, it is so a must to fasten the vine shoots to avoid
that they injure themselves or worse are torn away. This
manual operation is made in March until July. |
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