Kiger Family Vineyard
farming philosophy and practices
grass and weed control
We have not used any herbicides since our transition to organic farming in 2005.
As any organic winegrower will tell you, weed control is the single most challenging part of organic winegrowing. Grasses and weeds growing under the vines divert moisture from the soil and nutrients from the vines. They may also harbor various insect and rodent pests.
Our approach to controlling weed and grass beneath the vines has been two-pronged: with sheep and with manually operated string trimmers. As noted considerable detail on the Sheep page of this website, we have been deploying sheep as lawnmowers in our vineyard for several years. We have realized a 70-90% reduction in labor required to manage under-vine weeds and grasses where the sheep have been deployed, depending mostly on the volume of springtime precipitation once the sheep have been removed from the vineyard after budbreak. We also find fewer mowing passes are required where the sheep have grazed as well.
Specific practices in irrigation, grapevine nutrition, and pest management continue here
