Pruning and Disbudding

Yesterday we spent the entire afternoon pruning and disbudding our vines. After seeing budbreak, we had to make some difficult decisions regarding which shoot to keep. We also wanted to encourage some of the buds that were in better locations to leaf out so we went through the vineyard, cutting back the canes.
Even more difficult decisions had to be made because there were many shoots showing the developing inflorescence, the flowers that will eventually turn into fruit. But we wanted to ensure that the canes are healthy and producing a good amount of leaves before subjecting the vine to bearing fruit. We did keep a few of the healthier canes and disbudded those canes, leaving every other shoot that could potentially bear fruit.

The other benefit to the pruning and disbudding is that the vine will no longer have to spend energy to support excess vegetation. This is critical because we have had almost a month of dry weather and since we are still working on our irrigation plans, we are still relying on Mother Nature to provide us with rain. The last time that we had 3/4-inches of rain was on April 23rd. So, another advantage that we hope to have given our vines is that we have removed some of the excess vegetation so that the water reserve in the soil will have to support fewer leaves. Be healthy and prosper, vines!