So sorry for the time between the last blog, but I've been busy. But back to my time in CA last week. California already has some spring crop growth, so this is good timing for that. Oddly enough, it was kind of rainy at times. Dylan and I were driving here near Bakersfield when it started raining. Any rain is welcome in CA, but evidently this current week very heavy rain has turned into floods in some areas. They call it a Pineapple Express. Why make a great fruit like pineapple the culprit? Hope they get the rainbow of promise like we did.
Here is a field of grapes that received Kalibrate and Pr-G (what you call Pro-Germinator) last year, and will again. Look at the sandy soil here. Application of fertilizer through the drip irrigation works great as the nutrients are better taken up from the application in irrigation water. There are vineyards all over. But this is California.
It is still early and buds are just starting to break. You have to look close to see some small leaves. As I have said before, we prune the vines differently in Michigan. We generally don't prune last year's vines all the way back like in CA. We leave six or so buds on a vine, clip it off after that, and it grows from there. I guess the difference is that with the shorter season up North there isn't time to get enough growth for maximum grape production. So we need a head start.
So if you see a field like this, don't say it's onions. Especially if it's garlic. Hey, I've never seen garlic. Till now. Well they are the same genus: Allium. (I take being wrong very hard.)
So who doesn't love Halos? If you don't, then seek help. Here we are passing the Halo packing plant near Delano, north of Bakersfield. Halos are mandarin oranges, sweet and easy to peel. This facility for storing Halo cartons was opened in late 2016. It's big, 80 feet tall. Excellent marketing and architecture.
So I will have more CA news in upcoming blog posts. It's already getting close to the end of the month, and I need to make my self-imposed quota of eight posts per month. This is number three. You do the math. That will teach me to procrastinate. But that keeps them fresh.
