A long HOT summer ahead

Great weather so far on the Mornington Peninsula. November and December have been warm and dry. Not so great if you don't have any water but good if you have a supply. We will have enough for the season and will rely on good rainfall this winter to fill some otherwise fairly empty dams. This one on the left is normally lapping the jetty at this time of year. November and December of 2005 had a total of 191.1mm of rain with 4 days over 32degrees and the hottest being 37.1degrees. In November and December of 2006, just 41.4mm of rain with 7 days over 32degrees with the hottest being 40.3degrees. Quite a major difference. That type of weather is great for decease control because the mildews just don't get hold in it.

 

Fruit set has been great with the bunches just starting to fill out now. The good part of the dry weather will be that the flavours in the juices will be more intense this year.

In December our main focus is to set the canopy in the vertical position. As we have Scott Henry trellising, there are two canpies, one up & one down. The photo on the right shows the two canopies. The point of doing this is to get the sunlight into the canopy and to the grapes; makes for less decease and most importanly better flavours. Anyway it's nearly all done.