Frequently you will see rose bushes at the end of vineyard rows. Why are they there? Are they just decorative or do they serve a purpose?

Their original purpose was to be an early indicator of powdery mildew.

There is a decorative aspect. We plant yellow and white roses at the end of white wine grapes. We plant red, pink, or orange roses at the end of red wine grapes. It helps us see at a glance what is growing in that row. We have 45 rows with 15 different grape varieties. Lots of diversity.

The wasp in the picture is tiny, really tiny. Several could fit on the head of a pin. Tiny wasps, parasitoids, like this insert their egg inside the eggs of insects. The wasp egg hatches, the wasp larvae eat the egg contents, go through metamorphosis, and emerge as adults. They are mostly vegan, feeding on pollen and nectar to fuel them as they hunt eggs to produce the next generation.

That’s why we work at keeping lots of flowering plants in and around our zero-pesticide Vineyard del Sol at Paradisos del Sol Winery.

Anagrus family of wasps are the number one predators of Rose and Grape Leafhopper. They survive winter inside the egg of a Rose Leafhopper.

We specifically grow lots of plants in and around our vineyard.

A vineyard that is just vines and bare dirt? Well, here in the desert, if you put water on the ground, something will grow. If you are watering and nothing green is growing, that means you have doing something that is killing your soil.

Not something we want to do for in our vineyard for our wines.