The double plant - about our recently planted vineyard
This year we planted new vines again. On one of our best locations – at the Jungenberg. Which variety? …of course Blaufränkisch!
Before we started with the planting, we had to think about the underlay, the clone and the tillage. (You can find a Blog post about how and why we do this from last year.) Instead of using a clone from somewhere, we used again this year material from our own vineyards. For this we brought the pruned woody fruit rods from last winter, for grafting to the vine school Iby in Neckenmarkt.
One week before the planting we planned where in the curvy plot, the rows of vines will go. For this we needed a lot of time on the plot, equipped with tape measure, sticks, calculator and lots of patience. Planting a new vineyard is something for across generations and it has to fit not only for us, also for our neighbours. To enjoy the farming in the next decades, it`s best to not make any mistakes. Every few meters, basically when the plot is getting tighter or wider, the row is measured new to get a perfect curve.
The latest on the day of the planting we must ask ourselves how far the vines should be placed from each other. This year we decided to plant the vineyards with the double-decker planting. This means at one planting side we planted two instead of usually one vine (see picture below). Therefore we have to pay attention to the distance between the planting sides. It has to be bigger than with the usual planting, to give the vines enough space to grow in the future.
Already in 2015 we planted vineyards with the double-decker planting and achieved good results. The main advantage is the higher vine density. We can reach a pleasent yield per hectare with the same or lower single load per vine.
For a fast and good growing of our vines, we now wait for the big rain!
Autor: Katrin Lautner
