Inspired by an article on Western Farm Press about weeds in vineyards, we were looking at the wild plants we have in our vineyards. The idea is that by analyzing these wild plants we can understand what kind of necessities and needs the soils of our quintas have.
It is getting more and more popular in organic farmed vineyards to have cover cropping systems. These crops may help vines to better develop in a sustainable way. But that would be a topic for another post.
Today I want to talk about those random weeds that show up in our vineyards. We hate to have them in our vineyards. Well, let me explain, we love to have weeds in the vineyards, as long as they are in the right location. We don’t like to see them underneath the vines as they are hard to cut, compete in terms of water and nutrients with the vines and reduce ventilation. However, we love when they are in between two lines of vines: they create a habitat for beneficial insect as well as for wild life.
The most interesting part about the article is to understand what the weeds we have growing in the vineyards tell us about the soil. So here are some examples of weeds we have and what they say about our soil:
By knowing the weeds we have in our vineyards we can correct the necessities that our vines have. And by doing that, we can also reduce the weed population itself, and thus reducing the necessity of cutting the weeds or using herbicides.
If you know what the presence of other weeds mean to a vineyards, please share it here.
Oscar
