We rented a five foot rototiller to break up the sod, and incorporate the soil amendments. We removed the outer blades on each side to give us a three and a half to four foot area. While doing this, however, it still spread the soil out to five feet, (a dilemma we will have to come back to). This worked... for a while. That is until the PTO broke. Thankfully, we have some dedicated businesses and mechanics in Inwood and we were up and running the next day to finish the first go.
Another issue. Not deep enough... Back to the drawing board. We once again looked to the row cultivator for a solution. Will added six thick washers to three of the sweeps on the top bolt to give it more of an angle for a deeper dig.
This worked relatively well, mainly cutting in the center of the row. We the did another round with the rototiller-which loosened the soil down to about six inches.
Will's fighter plane.
Marking off the end rows, as a farmer would say.
...or "row ends" as Will calls them. We left 40 feet at the end of some rows and 30 at others. This will give us some room to turn tractors around when working in the vineyard.
Coming soon...
Water!
How many vines can we fit?
Walked the vineyard rows measuring the length. From our calculations, we should be able to fit 3000 vines on property (eventually), with 8 feet (between plants) x 10 feet (between rows).
Up next---auguring the vine planting holes in preparation for our planting party on Saturday!
Calico Skies Vineyard and Winery Inc. 2010 1366 Able Boulevard, Inwood, IA 51240 712-441-5547 calicoskieswine@gmail.com
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