Desalinization is enormously expensive.
and it was 28F yesterday AM. crazy.
Yes, Hardy, it’s true. This is going on day after day: 80 degrees in the early afternoon, less than 30 each morning. And no rain. I just saw a very colorful butterfly on my porch, and he was flying very erratically. Aren’t they supposed to be somewhere doing something else this time of year? Cover crop is looking pathetic.
We’re doomed.
I think it’s too early to say we’re doomed. It’s unlikely to be an easy year. But Feb and March could be quite rainy…we got a lot of rain in March 2012 for example. I know there are predictions that Feb is going to be dry…but predictions that far out aren’t worth very much imo.
Unless the buds push really early…then we could be doomed.
It’s never too early for Casey to say we’re doomed. ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
And now Mother Nature really wants to fark with us. I went out to get our pruning started on our chard budwood that gets sold to a nursery only to find that it is all pushing and useless. There was even green growth on some cane ends. Last year we pruned budwood in February. Now we’re REALLY doomed.
Man this sounds like Texas in 2011-2012. Rainfall that is typically 16-18" per year was less than 8 for both years. Wild temperature swings all winter and spring and stupid heat all summer. Hopefully y’all will get some relief soon.
Our governor has declared a drought emergency. Essentially he has asked everyone to cut water use by 20% - voluntarily. Now.
I do see some shower activity in the forecast for early next week. Pray for that.
The ten day still not showing much of anything. We’re nearing the point of no return. Anyone down south seeing any cracked buds?
I looked this morning, and the shower activity I had seen in the forecast is gone. Down in Napa along the Trail, I saw quite a bit of vineyard acreage with their overhead (frost protection) sprinklers on. Not sure why - also saw some standard drip going. Trying to accumulate groundwater before controls are put in place? I don’t know.
last week I had lunch with a grower, Phil Coturri, who manages 700+ acres in Napa/Sonoma. He mentioned that he heard of budbreak in Alexander Valley. Yikes.
praying for rain.
Dusty, 8" is 50% of normal. In the two record drought years in Cali, 1924 and 1977, rainfall was about 40% of normal. Normal for my site in West Sonona County is about 60". We’ve received about 2" so far, and the forecast for the month of February is for below normal precip. That would leave about 6 weeks left in our normal yearly storm window. Yes, it is certainly possible to get 20+" in a several week period, but that would be unlikely even during a normal climate cycle. If the forecast for February pans out, we’re not just looking at a 50 year drought event. We’re looking at economic and environmental effects never experienced before in these parts.
8" was the total rainfall from October of 2010 throught June of 2013. Since October of 2010 the biggest rain my vineyard has had is still just 1". What I am hearing and reading about California is almost a carbon copy of what we have been looking at out here. I hope y’all get some good rains over the next couple of weeks.
![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}
Big ass winds all night at my house (1500 ft).
I don’t know either, Linda. That’s why I put the question mark in there. However, I don’t find your head-scratching emoticon adds anything toward answering my question. Perhaps someone can add some real reasons why these vineyards might be doing this. I doubt it is to increase growth of the cover crop, because at this point, with such dry conditions, we would want any water to go to the vines, not to the green stuff in between.
In other years you will sometimes see overhead sprinklers going in order to bring down the water levels in the ponds, when they get too high. Not the case here this year.
My well is recovering extremely slowly this week - as if it were August or September in a typical year.
I fell that it is about maintaining the available water in the profile. This water would usually be supplied from the rain that never came…now we are waiting on the rain that will come.
Nick - yes, this is all I can think of. This is what I meant by “accumulating groundwater” - bringing and maintaining the moisture levels that would normally be present this time of year to the ground. And doing it now when it appears that it might not be able to be done later when and if controls are put in place on how and where one may use water.
Merrill, no winemaker here but I was wondering that it’s maybe so the vines can take up nutrients through the winter and so that they will not be stressed or possibly die? Again, I have no place here, and its just a guess.
Cheers!