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Napa Invasion!BY: Ralph DeAmicis | Category: Travel | Submitted: 2010-03-29 13:30:00
By now you might have heard about the quarantine in Napa County because of the sighting of a European moth that can destroy a crop. It probably road into town on some a vine cutting smuggled in from Europe inside some person's luggage. That's how a bunch of the early vine clones got there from Europe. Last year the moth devastated 9 acres in the middle of Oakville. The Ag Chem community immediately used this opportunity to announce extensive spraying throughout the county (we'll see if that happens), and to cast aspersions on the natural methods used by many of the premium growers. Chemicals damage the ground, sometimes for generations, and back in the day when wholesale spraying and synthetic fertilizers were popular Oakville received more than its fair share because they could afford more. Oakville fruit often brings the highest prices. Many of the 'modern' methods weaken the plants immune systems, and the overall impatience of growers doesn't help. In Europe and the Middle East , where families stay on their land for generations, growers planted grapes for their children to harvest the fruit from. The wines they made were from vines that their parents had planted. America is not a patient place, so as soon as the vine bare usable fruit it's grabbed and turned into wine. The vines don't have a chance to develop their personality before they are turned into money machines. Many of today's premium growers are using natural methods and the most committed have turned to Biodynamic. For anyone who is skeptical about the effectiveness of this method, all I can say is that you haven't spent as much time as I have in diverse vineyards. The difference in vitality is obvious. Now admittedly, my perceptions about plants and place may be a tad more developed, I've been a professional herbalist for close to forty years and I've co-authored three books on subjects like Feng Shui, Geomancy and Bau Biology. So I notice stuff! Often the difference between natural and synthetic methods has to do with the future and the side effects. There is very little long term data on many manufactured chemicals, and when it is accumulated what they find out is bad. Living systems are tremendously subtle and powerful, and approaching them in a brutish, arrogant style leads to unpleasant surprises in the future. As an end note, I'd like to remind people about why vines are so sensitive to invasion. Grape vines are grown from cuttings and have been for a long time. That journey from seed through adolescence to maturity is what gives an organism the opportunity to encounter challenges and overcome them. In the days before modern engineering reduced many public health problems, if a person made it to 25, barring accidents they would most likely live to be quite old. The low life expectancy was an average, the curve brought down by a proportionately high number of infant and childhood deaths from poor sanitation, water supplies and childhood diseases often related to the former. The other factor is that vines are self-pollinating hermaphrodites, neither solely male nor female, but both. Male and female vines exist in nature, as well as a smaller number that have the sex organs of both. Males produce no fruit, and females produce an abundance of berries. Hermaphrodites produce fewer grapes than the females, but when you fill a field with them every vine will produce grapes. Over time growers selected for these vines and that is what has been planted for thousands of years. There is a wonderful vitality that goes on between the sexes in the creation of life. When you remove that from the equation and produce new plants from cuttings the result are vines with a markedly similar genetic structure. Why are grape vines so subject to invasion? Because it is vitality and diversity that protects an organism and a species from disease! This is not a condemnation of grape growing methods, just a reminder that it is a sophisticated art with a long history of experience to draw upon. Article Source: http://www.writearticles.org/ About Author / Additional Info: Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery Guide Books and iPhone Apps, and owners of Amicis Tours and Cuore Libre Publishing. They are authors of over twenty books on health, design and travel. Their products can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com Comments on this article: (0 comments so far)
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