Page 39 - Grapevine March-April 2020

Around The Vineyard

Smart’s trellis system helps canopy management drawing extra attention. In an industry looking
by finding the balance in leaving enough foliage toward a mechanized future but, in the meantime,
to facilitate the necessary photosynthesis process still requires hand labor, the VSP trellis remains the
without causing excessive shading that would nega- best all-around canopy management trellis for fruit
tively impact fruit ripening or promote disease. production.

“His style of trellis system is still the way to go,” “First, that hand labor has to be available,” said
said Bevill. “We see the Vertical Shoot Position Bevill, “and it needs to be available when needed,
trellis or modified VSP trellis with movable wires frequently and for extended times to get the fruit
used the most because it traditionally results in a picked on time and during prime harvest condi-
high-quality first crop. Another popular configu- tions. That’s getting harder to come by and more
ration is the high wire system, with the first wire expensive to utilize. We offer bunkhouses and high-
42 to 48 inches above the ground and then a sec- er wages to our immigrant workers here on H2A
ondary wire hanging about six inches above that visas to ensure our labor availability. But if things
first one. The downside to the high wire system keep going the way they are, I would estimate that
is that it creates a need for manual shoot training such extensive use of hand labor will end within the
for about the first five years. But if done properly, next five or six years in favor of mechanical labor.
subsequent pruning can be done mechanically, Compatible trellis design, along with smart canopy
with manual pruning only necessary for mechanical management, has a lot to do with this, allowing
misses. Suckering is also minimal.” your trellis systems and vine configurations to grow
in a manner that is favorable to mechanical picking,
Bevill told The Grapevine Magazine that hand pruning and leafing. It’s better if you can accom-
labor can eat up to 60% of a vineyard’s expenses, plish these tasks with the off-the-shelf mechanical
so that is an area of canopy management that is implements available today.”

Stop by & see us at...
The Unified Wine & Grape Symposium
Booth C1313
February 4-6, 2020

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