italageordie
italageordie t1_j0cmh56 wrote
Reply to comment by DramaticTurnover7304 in TIL Europe's wine owes its existence to the grafting of vines to American grape root stock that weren't vulnerable to a species of aphid that was destined to wipe the industry out. by salton
Honestly, it depends. The farmers all grow their own plant material, which eventually becomes the plant at the end, so it's not like they buy in plants and just graft them. Saying that, some farmers care less about the end product than others, and while we have been sorting them (we all come together to sort them through a cooperative), you can definitely see there's differences. Then you have other factors common to everyone who grows plants such as weather and soil. Finally, the workers themselves are almost always immigrant workers who aren't paid a great deal, and it's hot hard work, so there's that. But I reckon after sorting, you'd have a plant stock that is around 99% good stock. I'd also like to say that the guy I work for is pretty meticulous, you have to work hard and pay attention but he takes care of his workers, and the end result is that he has very few bad plants that come through normally, and it's always good to know you've been a part of that!
TL:DR The plants that are grown can be of varying quality, but after the sorting process, I wouldn't worry about buying the plants here.
italageordie t1_j0bck6z wrote
Reply to TIL Europe's wine owes its existence to the grafting of vines to American grape root stock that weren't vulnerable to a species of aphid that was destined to wipe the industry out. by salton
I work in northern Italy, growing and grafting European heads to American roots, and it's incredibly labour intensive. We are currently at the end of a cycle, whereby the grafted plants are each individually checked by hand to ensure the graft has taken, the roots are good, and that there are no other issues, and those that pass have the heads individually trimmed by hand before being packed to be transported around the world. There's literally millions of plants, and this is just one part of job that is still mostly done by hand. It's amazing the effort that goes into it, and wish it was more widely known.
italageordie t1_j0fxbdl wrote
Reply to comment by Hairydone in TIL Europe's wine owes its existence to the grafting of vines to American grape root stock that weren't vulnerable to a species of aphid that was destined to wipe the industry out. by salton
You do see the eggs on the leaves of the American vines when you're trimming them at the beginning of summer. We are always told to tell the boss, but I'm not sure what he does about it.