Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 31st, 2007
I transplanted more Gold Nugget tomatoes last night, six more to what I’m calling the “east block.” That’s to distinguish them from the four in the “north block” that I transplanted on the 29th. I did it the same way: deep planting hole, pinched out the lower leaves, added a ground up antacid tablet and […]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 30th, 2007
I’ve been reading up on blossom end rot, and it turns out that there may be something to the old (I would have called it a “wive’s tale”) practice of putting some powdered antacid in the planting hole of each tomato. The rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the fruit, and the calcium […]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 29th, 2007
Today’s the Day! Ok, I know I said that yesterday was also the day, but that was for racking the mead. Today’s the day for transplanting tomatoes. I’ve been anticipating and delaying for quite a while, but there’s some hot days (upper 70s Fahrenheit - about 25 or 26 Celsius) and warm nights (50F - […]
Posted in mead on May 28th, 2007
Today’s the day. I waited until the yeast had fermented all the available sugar (here’s why), I prepared a bentonite slurry, and I set aside all morning so I’d have the time. Once I sanitized my equipment, added sulfite and the bentonite slurry to the 5-gallon carboy, I started my siphon.
It took me quite […]
When I rack the mead from it’s primary fermenter to a 5-gallon carboy, it will throw off a deposit of mostly dormant yeast. To separate the mead from this sediment, or lees as it’s called, I’ll have to rack again in a month or so. Since I’m going to have to rack again anyway, I’ve […]
It took three weeks instead of two, but the mead has fermented out.
In the photo above, a hydrometer floating in a sample of mead indicates a specific gravity of about 1.003, and that’s close enough to 1.000 for me to call it done. It looks closer to 1.004 because the camera was a little high […]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 25th, 2007
When I wrote about cluster thinning to improve wine grapes, it got me thinking about tomatoes. Could the same technique improve the quality of tomatoes (and wine made from them)? I always have a problem with blossom end rot on my Romas, and I think that may be clue.
This rot occurs because the plant can’t […]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 24th, 2007
I used to write software for a living, and one thorny issue never far form anyone’s mind was the release date. This was the result of changes, unexpected problems, negotiation, compromise, tests of will, overtime, threats of violence, and - ok maybe not threats of violence. Not explicit ones anyway. The point is that the […]
Posted in bonsai vineyard, viticulture on May 23rd, 2007
Advice on fertilizing and irrigating conventional vineyards is often easy to come by, but the rules change in a bonsai vineyard where you plant grape vines in pots and trim the roots every year. You must supply water and fertilizer to keep the vines healthy and to get a good crop. The key question is […]
When I checked on my mead two days ago, I measured the pH as well as the specific gravity. I use pH papers, little test strips treated with indicators that change color at a known pH. After dipping it into the mead, I compare the strip’s color to a chart.
It’s rare that the test strip’s […]