(09-23-2021, 07:09 PM)Jags Wrote:

(09-23-2021, 05:12 PM)Senor Fantastico Wrote: DOV is Dried-On-Vine. There's different styles but it looks like this:

https://twitter.com/julioepb/status/6978...25696?s=19

Normally, when the crop ripens you pick the fruit and lay them down on paper trays to dry in the sun. Like this (all though that field is oriented wrong)

https://twitter.com/BiolaRaisin/status/1...12611?s=19

Traditional raisins are a little unique in that you grow the crop, but then at harvest instead of just picking it off and sending it in, you have to dry the crop, and the grower takes in all the risk in that process. When they're on the trays, ANY moisture introduced will induce mold, sometimes insects get into them, or lately the smoke stops the solar radiation from being able to dry them and they might start to ferment. Quite a lot can go wrong. But if you get it right, you'll make more. 

DOV takes a lot of that out of the equation by allowing the fruit to dry suspended in air - the moisture problem especially. In the Tweet above, they cut the fruiting canes to stop water flow to the fruit. You can see the dead leaves already and the fruit is yellowing. The tradeoff is it takes a very dangerous 3 week and substitutes it for a longer 8-10 week period and the problem then becomes can you get it done before the temps start dipping into the low 80s. 

All in all though, much less risky, and that style of vine and trellis will produce a heavier crop to boot. Then to top that off it's more easy to mechanize the harvest process. Pretty win-win. 

And no not only grapes. I actually have more almonds than grapes now but my heart's much closer to the vineyard. My brothers grow different things too, mandarins, pistachios, cherries. A little wheat. I'm the only one dumb/stubborn enough to stick with raisins lol.

How easy is it to switch to a different crop?  I’m sure there are “players” that have a quota or so for different buyers.  Or something of the sorts.  Can you switch up the field and sell other crops easily or are you stuck short term on the grapes/raisins? 

You make it sound easy, but the transition to DOV Seems to be easy enough?? No? You’ve stated the risks.  Maybe try a percentage one year and see how it goes before fully going all in?

Asking the tough questions Jags haha, you have keen insight. I could go into all this better over a few beers but I'll do my best here. 

It's easy to switch crops, but it isn't cheap. That's the number 1 hindrance for a grower of my size. You'd be stopping all your revenue (tearing your field out with a bulldozer) and paying a significant amount to replant the whole field. Then you'll be waiting 3-4 years for any permanent crop to develop enough to even break even on a harvest. That overhead vineyard in the first tweet up there runs about 12k per acre to plant for instance. Then you'll spend a out 1.5k per acre each year to grow them. 

So let's say you replant a 40 acre vineyard block. You'll spend something like $750,000 before you ever make a dime back. 

On the other side of the problem is you need someone to buy your crop. If you have almonds, buyers will fight over you. Other stuff can be dicey. Where I sell raisins I'm a cooperative member, so they can't really get rid of me. That's a another big issue for growers my size, and a large reason why I'll probably stay in raisins of some form. Sometimes people don't have a permanent home, and every year you have to negotiate a cash contract with a buyer. Some years when there is abundant supply you can probably guess how that goes for a small grower. 

As to your last few questions, what makes the DOV possible is the development of a handful of early ripening vine species over the last 30 years or so. Most vineyard here are Thompson Seedless variety and they don't build proper sugar until about Labor Day. At that point you have about 30 days to dry the fruit naturally before it gets too cold. Much too short for doing DOV, which needs something like 80 days. 

So for me, I'll have to replant to new vines, and if I'm doing the vines it makes sense to do a different trellis system at the same time. I have the vines picked out, but I'm a little hung up on two different trellis styles I like, the single high wire or an open gable. The each have different advantages, but neither exist yet with the particular vine species I've picked out so I don't really have much prior knowledge to lean on. Just gonna wing it lol. 

Btw, you were also onto something by saying do a percentage, the open gable style trellis would allow me to keep the same spacing and I'd absolutely replace the fields in thirds. 

Anyway, there's probably a little more to it but I didn't wanna write a full page, anything else you're curious about lmk.

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