Wolff Vineyard - Better Than Expected

A group of friends and family received a tour of Wolff Vineyards yesterday. A previous post of SLO Today gave only a taste of what Jean-Pierre Wolff Ph.D. has to say in person about his sustainable operation outside of San Luis Obispo. Ahead of time, we knew that work was taking place to recreate curves and ascending pools in the creeks on the property, and that a turtle refuge was also in place.

Our surprise and delight was learning the degree to which Dr. Wolff has labored on his 125 acres of grapes to promote sustainable wine. The care and thoughtfulness and planning were amazing to all of us. No traditional pesticides are used on the property but all kinds of care is taken to discourage them.

His vineyards are not watered except by rain, but he carefully plants red varietals on the slopes and has saved the thirty-five year old Chardonny vines on the flat by conserving and holding water and preventing it from running off into the creeks. For example, he has built up his roads throughout his property so they promote the retention of rain water in the water table. One of his first moves eleven years ago when he acquired the vineyard, was to cut the lateral roots 3 feet down to encourage deeper growth of taproots, and thus better survival of these vines in dryer years.

He composts at the ratio of 1.5 for the grape tonnage he harvests. Much of this is in the form of gypsum from recycled drywall, but he also plants lupines and other nitrogen fixing plants in between the rows of vines.



His pruning techniques are also an integral part of his sustainable methodology.

Many of our attendees yesterday were impressed enough to either buy wine or join the wine club. Our country is lucky to have such a dedicated environmentalist in our midst. I urge any of you with an interest in this subject to seek out his talks or tours in the future. For more on Dr. Wolff see this article.

Plant in the Winter?

If you live in California, it's not too late for winter planting!

Why plant in the spring in California? Some say this idea is a holdover from our ancestors, or perhaps ourselves, as gardeners in the Eastern United States. Most of us don't need to worry about freezing temperatures killing the new plants, why not instead plant in the fall, or winter so they can get a headstart in the rain, before the long dry summer begins?

Most of California is a Mediterranean Climate which means that we have temporate wet winters, long dry summers, wild fire danger,an ocean to the West, and live between 30 degree and 45 degrees North or South latitude.

Only 2% of the landmass in the world has a Mediterranean climate though 16% of the species diversity thrives in them. Where are these located? Most of California has a Mediterranean climate (but not the Sierras), much of Chile, the Cape Provence of South Africa, all the Mediterranean Basin (except the deserts),and two areas in Western and Southern Australia meet the criteria. Many gardeners in California take the plants from another Mediterranean climate and plant them here. I volunteer at such a garden, however, while one can conserve water and fertilizer this way, I am much more an advocate of native plants.

In either case, a gardener does well to consider the climate in his or her planting. Does it actually make sense to plant in the spring, knowing that water will be essential throughout the summer to keep the plants alive? A much more water conservative method is to plant in the fall - late October or November to take advantage of the winter rains to give the plants a huge start in their new locale.

Native plants, in particular, happily send down tap roots when the soil is moist and the air is cool. If you have experienced San Luis clay you know why - in the summer it can become hard as rock. It would seem impossible to grow roots through this medium. Many native gardeners even refrain from summer watering after the first two years, once the plants are well established.

Most of California doesn't suffer much from winter freezes so planting can even continue through December and January if one doesn't manage to get all of it completed in late fall. In our area, October usually brings a plant sale at the Nipomo Native Garden and the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden. In November there is the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) plant sale.

It's not too late for winter planting to take advantage of the rains still to come, and there is always next fall.

Winter Rain in California

A wet windshield
reveals
a river by the highway
swollen to a lake
spread through farms and orchards
marshy mud fields
that winter rain reclaims.

Spouts
flooding rain barrels
produce
unexpected ponds
around our domicile
especially the bed
laboriously dug for sand
and buckwheat
that's the deepest
waterhole of all.

A lesson in the
pointlessness
of amending rock hard to gooey clay
for native plants,
and also the futility
of planting in the pretence
we can modify the ecosystem
except in the wrong direction.

Vanishing Bees

Above: Bees enjoying the male catkins on the white alder in my front yard - they come every December. I walk outdoors and hear them buzzing.

Lots of press in the last few years about the vanishing European honey bee from all over the planet. Lots of theories abound. Now a film shown in San Luis Obispo last night has a pretty plausible explanation.

Vanishing of the Bees starts with the beekeeper who first reported the phenomenon in about 2004 that has come, in this country, to be called Colony Collapse Disorder. David Hackenberg was a large-scale beekeeper since the 1960's, he trucked his bees all over the country from his place in Florida. He and beekeeper friends researched this disaster, and finally traveled to France, which experienced this bee collapse ten years ago.

No real American research to confirm their conclusion, or perhaps even authenticated research in France, but the French government prefers to err on the side of safety and withdrew certain systemic pesticides. The bees were back healthy in France a year after that measure was taken.

Why systemic pesticides? The film delights in showing us how DDT was touted and sprayed with abandon in earlier decades, but even this pesticide only stayed active a short time. The systemic even lingers in the soil, let alone the plants, and seem to disorient and confuse the bees over generations.

Why isn't the EPA taking action, doing research or something in this? Like the FDA, the EPA does no real research of it's own. It depends upon the research done by the companies who develop the products. On bees, the tests last for 5 days. If the product doesn't kill the bees in five days it is considered safe to sell. No research handles any long term effects or anything less than lethal dangers.

Where are systemics used? Monoculture crop farms covering thousands of acres of usually corn or soybeans use systemics to kill pests. Bees have to be trucked in to these farms. To survive in one place, bees need a diversity of plants that provide pollen and nectar except during the winter. They could never survive on these farms. Systemic pesticides were introduced in many of these monoculture farms in the early part of this century. After bees visit them, they seem to develop CCD about six months later.

View the trailer and find info on showings below.

Vanishing of the Bees Trailer