Trimming the Vines

There is not a lot going on in the vineyard right now and to be honest it is not very pretty. The vines are all dormant and most of the work in the vineyard at this time of year is focused around maintenance and trimming trees to make it easier to get the tractor around in spring. 

One thing that does need to be done is we need to trim the vines back (prune). We do this every year to control the growth of the vines for optimal fruit production. We will trim the shoots back to the point where every shoot will produce two buds. 

 As you can see the vines are dormant and the canes are rather long. 

 Here is a section that has been pruned. 

Don't worry in a few months new buds will form and there will be lots of new growth and plenty of grape bunches. 

 One added benefit of the pruning is that it makes it a lot easier for the tractor to get down the rows. Now that we are starting to get some grass growing we will need to disk the rows to help control the weeds.