1.21.2020
This week at the Fabian Garcia ASC vineyard in Las Cruces the
access tubes are being installed into the cover cropped and bare soil 'control' plots of the Malbec
block. Tim, one of our student workers uses a mallet and metal rod to drive the
fiberglass tube into the 100-centimeter deep hole made by an auger. A consistent and tight (no air spaces or gaps) soil to tube contact installation is critical. Once installed, these tubes will accommodate a banded probe, frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) probe that can detect soil volumetric
water content at 6 different depths. These moisture readings will help researchers (us) better understand the relationship between different vineyard
cover crops and soil moisture throughout the seasons, and how any differences in soil moisture affect vine performance.
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| Installation of access tube with aluminum rod that is placed inside of the tube and then driven to depth with mallet to place the tube at the correct depth. |
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| Components used to install the 'access' tubes |
1.17.2020
Over the next two weeks the vineyards at NMSU's Fabian Garcia Agriculture Science Center will be dormant pruned. Dormant pruning maintains the vines within a manageable size from year to year, making it easier for the field crew to access the fruit and manage the inter-row cover crops. Here at Fabian Garcia we spur prune the predominately vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trained vines. Later in the spring, after bud break, we will thin new shoots to a specific count per foot (usually 3-4 per foot of cordon) to keep the research vines consistent and to maintain 'vine balance' (leaf to fruit ratio). The dormant wood is bundled per vine and weighed in the Malbec block, being used in the cover crop study.
Over the next two weeks the vineyards at NMSU's Fabian Garcia Agriculture Science Center will be dormant pruned. Dormant pruning maintains the vines within a manageable size from year to year, making it easier for the field crew to access the fruit and manage the inter-row cover crops. Here at Fabian Garcia we spur prune the predominately vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trained vines. Later in the spring, after bud break, we will thin new shoots to a specific count per foot (usually 3-4 per foot of cordon) to keep the research vines consistent and to maintain 'vine balance' (leaf to fruit ratio). The dormant wood is bundled per vine and weighed in the Malbec block, being used in the cover crop study.
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| Weighing dormant pruning wood and Tim (recording the weights on his phone (background with black jacket and baseball cap) @ NMSU Fabian Garcia ASC, January 2020 |
