Coordinator’s Column

Hello Gardeners,

 

This month we had a wonderful visit to Troon Vineyard out in the Applegate Valley. Troon is a biodynamic and regenerative organic certified vineyard. Part of the biodynamic certification means that they have at least 10% of their land dedicated to wildlife habitat. It was awesome to see a larger scale operation incorporate techniques to promote pollinators and beneficial insects.

Troon has wildflower patches throughout the vineyard in low sections that would be too wet for grapevines to thrive. Some of these patches are intentional plantings and some are more meadow style of letting the flowers grow and mingle. A few years ago they installed a native plant garden. Half of it is more managed plantings and the other half is a meadow. The spring and early summer bloomers were bright and vibrant in the garden. The buckwheat and lupines were very happy and colorful.

The grapevines themselves are established in a three-year system. The first year the ground is plowed to let the grapes establish without competition. The second-year grasses are planted in the space between the rows of vines. In the third year, short perennial flowers are planted in the rows with the grape vines. I am interested to see the long term impacts this style of growing has on their overall water usage and pest occurrences. I hope the perennial flowers offer wonderful habitat for beneficial insects like parasitic wasps to keep grape vine pest numbers down.

I had a great time learning, asking questions, and chatting with all the Master Gardeners who made the trek out to Troon. We got lucky with the beautiful weather. I hope we can work with Troon to have more tours in the future for those who missed this opportunity.