The first grape berries rise

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With the beginning of June the first grape berries rise.

The vine is subject to attack by many pests or diseases which must be protected specially in the vegetative cycle.

Weather conditions greatly influence the mode and intensity of the attack, but the conduct of the vineyard, its sanity, the quality of prevention and caste whose resistance to diseases and pests can be very different from each other, also determine the severity of the occurrence.

The primary treatment phase takes place in a relatively short period of time: from the cotton bud till the closure curl, i.e. the first 3 months of vegetative cycle. The long, hot and dry Summer, main characteristics of the Mediterranean climate, usually does not require treatment between the close of the berry and the painter (the moment when the berries come color), and from then to the proximity of harvest limits the application of most treatments.

Bordeaux mixture preparation

The formulation below is to make 10 liters, to make other quantities just keep the proportions between the ingredients. The "bordeaux mixture", calda bordalesa, is made of a dissolution of copper sulphate and lime water.

a) Dissolution of copper sulphate(1 liter):

The day before and four hours before the mixture’s preparation, dissolve the copper sulfate. Pour 100 g of copper sulfate within a cotton cloth, tie and dive into a plastic container with 1 liter of warm water;

b) Lime water:

Pour 100 g of lime in a bucket of 10 liters capacity. Then add 9 liters of water slowly.

c) Mixing of the two ingredients:
Add gradually and always stirring, the copper sulphate solution (1 litre) into the lime water bucket.

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d) Test of the knife:

To see if the final mixture is not acidic, we dive a clean knife made of common steel for 3 minutes in the final mixture.

If the blade is dirty, which means it acquired a brown color when removed from the mixture, indicates that the solution is acidic. It should be added more lime in the mix, but if not dirty, the “bordeaux mixture”(calda bordalesa) is ready to use.

Preventing fungus attack

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The potatoes are really pretty now. About two years ago we weren't cautious and the potatoes foliage was attacked by the mildew and all the harvest was burnt.

This year we are being very cautious. We already have give them twice the bordeaux mixture (portuguese "calda bordalesa") which is a natural fungicide, made from copper sulphate and slaked lime, to prevent the attack of fungus, specially the mildew.

First meal of broad beans

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Yesterday I had my first meal of broad beans (fava beans) of the first broad beans harvest. Nothing like a meal of fresh broad beans from which we can feel them full of taste. Of course we usually freeze them to have full year of eating, but like any kind of food if it's fresh it tastes much better. It's a vegetable we really like because it gives us a good feeling of being well fed. The sowing was not different from the potatoes, they were sown just before the potatoes, in the last half of November, and in the same way. Even the fava bean seem to be more stronger against diseases than the potatoes and more stronger against the frost. The only problem now is they are too tall and the wind is taking them down. The lucky thing is that they already have pass the "flower" stage and they all already have at least little fava beans. It doesn't seem we would take much advantage from putting stakes into the ground at this time, now that were waiting for more two weeks to take the full harvest. 

Want to read about seeding potatoes?

So read and enjoy the following article

Preparing potatoes for seed

Organic fertilizer

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The soil organic matter results mainly from vegetable waste, although the animal remains contribute significantly in its composition. Thus cattle, microorganisms from the terrain, insects and man himself, directly or indirectly, participate in the decomposition of plant residues and their distribution through the layers of soil. For this and other reasons, we find plots with different levels of organic matter. These levels reach the maximum in peaty soils and down to the minimum value in desert soils. Manure is what is most precious on a farm.

Our garden is very well fed with organic fertilizer, most of it is manure. It is bought always in the same place because we trust on that person. It is important that the manure is of good quality to avoid diseases and have a good harvest. It comes always with many earthworms which is very good for your soil, a soil with earthworms means it has life and it breaths. Only one thing the seller told us, is that there are some plant roots inside the manure which are bad for the soil. That is because that kind of plant roots are not digested by the animals. To solve that problem, while we distribute the manure on the garden we are checking for the roots and we take them off and leave it in the garbage because it's not useful even for waste compound.