It shouldn't come as a surprise that soil is one of the most important components of plant nutrition. While chemical fertilizers can supplement a vine's development, I don't want to miss the opportunity to take advantage of natural ways to build life into our soil. For inspiration, I have taken to Lon Rombough's The Grape Grower - A Guide to Organic Viticulture. He notes that "in healthy, well balanced soil, an amazing, complex web of life is working constantly, creating a series of chemical and physical events on which plant life depends."

One component of healthy soil that we're introducing to our property in Springfield is local turkey compost. Today, Jessie Cover delivered roughly 20 yards of compost from Diestel Turkey Ranch. Having recently ripped the soil, we're now ready to begin spreading the turkey compost and gypsum mix to begin building our soil. In reality, we started building our soil last Fall when chose not to use a pre-emergent weed control and instead purchased a cultivator to turn over all vegetation back into the topsoil. Today's work is just another small step in producing good fruit.

J&SK