Page 42 - Grapevine March-April 2020

Around The Vineyard
able mechanized tools.”
Loconto works mostly with high-end cabernet
growers, and over the past five to 10 years, he’s
seen the customary canopy management practices
start to change.
“Call it climate change or whatever, but we’re
starting to see a fundamental change,” said
Loconto. “There’s still a high use of VSP or modified
VSP trellis systems, but any newly planted, replaced
or moved rows are being repositioned and spun in
a better and more precise North-South orientation.
This makes better use of the natural path of the
sun and maximizes and better balances the use of
morning and afternoon for both sides of the cano-
py. After that, it’s about timing and the goals of the
vineyard regarding their fruit and vine quality and
desired yield. If you have weak or younger vines, it
may be better to sucker sooner and perform your
fruit thinning. For stronger and older vines, you can
thin fruit and sucker later for maximum sugar load-
ing. Open zones are beneficial for more aromatic
profiles, and they can help with the amount of acid-
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ity and tannin development with simple vine man-
agement. You always want warm days and good
sap flow for pruning.”
Different environments require different manage-
ment and trellis considerations. Vineyards located
in volatile weather settings have to be willing to
use netting, shades or some other blocking material
in case of severe weather, extreme winds or hail-
storms. Some colder climate vineyards make use of
buried canes, green growing vines that are pulled
down and buried in the vine row. The Geneva
Double Curtain trellis is a popular choice for
increased frost protection because of its downward
growing, split canopy system. Still, being bulky and
top-heavy, it is a liability in areas experiencing fre-
quent windy situations.
“Our biggest challenge here in Napa is to develop
mechanized vineyards that retain the quality we’re
known for, while also controlling heat and sun
exposure issues,” said Loconto. “Everywhere you
go, you’ll see misters and shade cloth used to com-
bat sun exposure. For those older vineyards that
are still orientated to have unequal amounts of sun
in the morning and afternoon, there is a noticeable
difference on the contrasting sides of the vine. Any
issues we address have to be solved with the idea
of optimizing our vineyards for mechanical farming.
Plain and simple, labor is just hard to come by and
getting harder. Some equipment manufacturers are
helping by developing machines that are compara-
ble to hand labor, gently pulling the right amount
of leaves while being relatively gentle on the fruit
and soft on the clusters. That trend has to continue
to move towards the mechanized vineyard.”
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