Page 49 - Grapevine March-April 2020

Around The Vineyard

“Educate your crew and stick with them until the
end. I share videos with my clients from my web-
site, and on a rainy day, the crew watches those.
Repetition of key pruning concepts is a great way
to empower your crew to make decisions on their
own and quickly.”

One example he provides is that vigorous vines
with large cane diameters can retain spurs with Join Us at
two-count buds, whereas smaller vines or vines Booth #B825
with some small canes may need to have several
spur positions pruned back to a one-count bud.
“The motto I use in my academy is ‘no wimpy
wood’—which seems to resonate with growers and
results in less wimpy shoots that produce inferior
fruit,” Westover of Virtual Viticulture Academy told
The Grapevine Magazine.

“Weather can also cause a shift in a standard
pruning protocol. For instance, in a year with high
primary bud death due to freeze conditions, a
grower needs to first assess the percentage of bud
death in the vineyard, and then adjust the final
number of count buds per vine to compensate,” he
said. “This isn’t easy to do, but it can certainly help
keep a vineyard in business through a tough season sulfur to kill any disease spores that overwintered
if done properly—and some live buds remain!” in mummified fruit, dead wood or old leaves.”

Myer’s pruning team includes two people on staff Also remember that not removing enough canes
for a 40–plus workweek who are in the vineyard “will cause over-production with a too-dense cano-
daily. One of her primary takeaway tips is proper py, under-ripe fruit and conditions for disease,” she
sterilization. “Clean pruning tools at the end of said. “These conditions require more labor through
each row, and especially when changing varietals.” the growing season because the vineyard manager
is constantly trying to combat these issues through
Westover agreed. “This is an area of research that summer hedging, spraying and leaf removal.”
we have little information on at this time, but ster-
ilizing shears after each row and—at a minimum—
between blocks is a good practice. Solutions of 10%
bleach or 70% isopropyl alcohol are inexpensive
options to spray on shears,” he said.

So is the work done once buds break? Not nec-
essarily. “Stay proactive on your vineyard manage-
ment programs from pruning until frost to avoid
uncontrollable problems,” said Myer of Laurel Gray
Vineyards. “Watch for split vines that may have
happened due to extreme cold weather when the
sap was rising. Remove all cut wood from the vine-
yard floor and spray while still dormant with lime

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