It was bitterly cold on the vineyard last night with the soil reaching -7.6C and air temperatures as low as -3.6C. Fortunately, a result of the cold weather in March and early April, bud burst is late this year so hopefully there won't have been much damage.
Most of the vines are at "first swell", which means that the buds are showing on the canes but they are still brown with no colour. At this stage they can withstand temperatures as low as -10C. However when they have fully swollen,with some colour showing, they can only withstand -3C without being damaged. Once we have bud burst then any temperatures below -1C will be a problem.
 |
| A bud at Full Swell |
Yes, bit of a shock after such a warm day in West London. I thought the weather station needed new batteries when I read 0.0 c. Today, the soil temperature is 11.1 at a depth of 20 cms. Quite a leap. However, cold is forecast later in the week.
ReplyDelete