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We promised, so here is the answer to the question that Ezequiel from Argentina made to us a few days ago. He asked us when was the best moment to plant a vine and how to do it. José Manuel Gómez, the person responsible for Castillo de Maetierra’s vineyard, gave us some indications. He says the best moment to plant a vine is when winter ends or the spring begins. This reduces the risks arising from freeze and, it will allow us to take advantage of the water accumulated during the winter and the spring showers. We will also take advantage of the spring temperatures, which helps them root and favours the vegetative development of the small vines.
However, there are many factors involved that we should take into consideration in order to plant a vine correctly.
1. Firstly, we have to consider the wine-growing and/or oenological objective pursued. Depending on this, we must choose a variety or varieties that we can plant, which at the same time will depend on the land’s wine-growing abilities, its location, arrangement, orientation, height and edaphoclimatic conditions, amongst others.
2. Another important decision is the rootstock, which shall depend on the type of soil comprising our plot, as well as its characteristics, for which a representative sample shall be essential. A main point to consider would be when choosing a rootstock, which shall be compatible with the variety chosen. We have to avoid incompatibilities with the variety.
3. An important factor would be to define the plantation pattern and its density, that is, the distance between plants in a same row and between different rows. This depends on the wine-growing objective, plot, inclination, shape, conduction system, type of pruning and available machinery, amongst others.
4. Deciding on the correct orientation of the rows is very important, which is usually a North-South orientation and slightly to the East at about 30º, in order to take advantage of the maximum solar radiation, although to a great extent this depends on the orientation, geometry and the slope of our plot.
5. We should also decide on the conduction system (trellis, gobelet, …) and the type of pruning (cordón royat, guyot, …), which will depend on the wine-growing objective, availability of labour, available machinery, etc.
6. Before planting, we have to prepare the land: subsoiling or ripping, levelling, drainage, soil liming, basal dressing, and the supplementary tasks carried out to help plant the vines.
7. Finally, planting is carried out, which can be performed in several ways. The most common are manually with a quoit – marking should have been carried out previously, mechanically with semi-automatic machines equipped with laser technology, and semi-automatic machines equipped with a GPS – which are the most precise.
We hope that we have answered your query.
Thank you very much and best of regards.
