Commercial ARRA™ at Giumarra Vineyards
This year, Giumarra Vineyards in Bakersfield, California reaped a huge harvest of ARRA varieties due to their massive planting of 1,000 acres in 2017. This great investment has indeed led to the desired result and has met and exceeded expectations.
ARRA 29
480 acres of ARRA 29 were planted in April-May 2017, yielding a first year production of 12 tons per hectare, which earned high praise from the chain stores and received premium prices compared to the Flame harvested at the same time.
Joe Giumarra, Vice President of Agriculture at Giumarra Vineyards, understood from the start that such young vines (1 year old) cannot bear the load of big bunches and adopted the protocol of small bunches, with an average of 24 bunches per vine.
Organic ARRA 30
A commercial organic vineyard of 40 acres of ARRA 30 was planted in May 2017, along with its non-organic mirror plot. These two were harvested together and reached the same quality standards.
The organic quality and yield surprised the company. The secret to this success was early tipping of the organic bunches to max 60-70 berries per bunch. The crunchy and sweet fruit ripened this year with Early Sweet and ended at the same time as well.
Early Sweet
Early Sweet is successfully grown by Giumarra Vineyards, however this year, Joe Giumarra has improved the quality of the fruit by enhanced nutrition, adding macro and micro elements to the soil during springtime. The outstanding results followed shortly thereafter.
Early Sweet
Our sincere thanks and great appreciation go to Joe Giumarra, who utilized his vast experience and expertise to treat the young fields of ARRA varieties with the utmost dedication and noteworthy care.
Meanwhile, in Brazil
Last month, Agronomist Augusto Prado and Grapa’s Technical Representative Russaika Nascimento, held a conference for ARRA growers from Coopexvale cooperative. During the conference topical issues such as irrigation management and harvest management were discussed. In addition, pipeline varieties were presented and growers had the opportunity to see the vines 40 days after pruning, in bloom and end of bloom.
California Here We Come!
The 2018 Early ARRA Open Field Days are almost here and we are getting ready
Just a small taste of what awaits you on July 17 - 18th in Bakersfield.
WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU THERE!
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