Page 42 - Grapevine NovDec 2021

Around The Vineyard

teries and a charging cradle,” he said. “The Zenport wire that is three feet high and a top wire that is
EP27 cuts 1.25-inches and comes with three bat- five feet high and is used for grapes that do not
teries and a charging adapter that will charge three require winter protection.
batteries at once. The batteries charge faster than
the pruner runtime, so the user will never run out Vineyard workers should also be trained on steril-
of juice!” izing equipment after each vine using an isopropyl
alcohol solution. Part of the training process should
Zenport offers spare batteries and blades and all cover removing diseased wood with lesion or sap
parts for the cordless pruners, such as housing, by either burning it or discarding it according to
motors, gears, and electronics. The new Zenport municipality requirements.
EP26 and EP27 have features not found on the
original cordless pruners, including progressive cut Regarding training, Van Hoorn said Infaco-USA’s
mode, an adaptive cut option, simple “hair-trigger” hand-held tools are designed to be intuitive and
mode and a digital LCD readout. come with user guides in both English and Spanish.
“Our pruning shear, patented safety system, elec-
Training for Pruning tric tying machine and vineyard desuckerer can
be mastered in minutes,” Van Hoorn said. “When
A topic that deserves extra attention is training in doubt, our YouTube channel features how-to
staff on safe and effective pruning techniques. The videos, we offer on-site training for crews, and we
most common pruning injuries are strained shoul- have also conducted live video training online for
ders, sore back muscles and hand lacerations. Some customers in remote areas.”
vineyard operators train staff using the four-arm
Kniffen method, which utilizes two horizontal wires “Vineyard managers can train their employees to
to support the vine. This method features a bottom use our products in the safest and most effective

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