Weed and Pest Management

Saturday the 19th of April:
The vineyard is 2.5+ acres with 19 rows of trellis however only 17 rows are planted. Caroline and I mixed 1 gallon of 'Surflan' and 24oz. 'Roundup' with 25 gallons of water for the 'environmist' applicator. The application rate of 6 was chosen, due to the syrup like quality of the 'Surflan', and a moderate speed of the 'Gator' was used. That being said only half of the expected amount of product was used up. Normally when just using 'Roundup' all 25 gallons of mix would have been used at completion of the 19 rows.

Sunday the 20th of April:
Shoot size was 1 to 2 inches with some longer. This is the first fungicide spray of the season. Based on the MD Coop Ext. Service fact sheet 848 Caroline and I mixed 4lbs. of 'Penncozeb' and 1 gallon of 'Sulphur' to 30 gallons of water for a 1 acre application. Due to a strong breeze, drift and the fact that the shoots are still very small, I chose to only apply on the upwind side of the rows. The blast sprayer has a tank mix feature which is always best to use. The application rate for a 1 acre pass (2.5 acres, 1 side only): all 17 planted rows on the same side is as follows; run the blast sprayer at full throttle, set the 'John Deere' throttle at 1900rpm. and run in 3rd gear. When about halfway done I generally gauge the amount of product used to amount of vineyard sprayed and throttle down to 1800rpm's. and achieve full coverage. When the foliage is more mature you would repeat this entire process and spray the other side of the 17 rows.