Canopy Management: Nip and Tuck

Our friends have been helping us in the vineyard since spring and one of the tasks that we are doing is called shoot thinning and positioning. I like to refer to this as nip and tuck. We began in May with the task of disbudding, which is the removal of buds from positions along the cane that are too close together or not turning upward toward the sunlight.
May disbudding activities:
During May, we did the first pass of disbudding approximately 6,000 vines which took 4 days.
The second pass occurred from May 23 to May 31st. During this pass, we were once again disbudding shoots that were growing toward the ground and also shoots that were too close together. We are doing this to divert energy into the remaining growing shoots and also to open up the canopy so that we can get a good amount of air flow to prevent the occurrence of fungal diseases.

Some of our vines were farther along and we were pruning shoots and whenever possible, saving 4 shoots to serve as next year's canes.

June nip and tuck activities:
During the first weeks in June, we had cool weather and rain so the shoots jumped up. Some of our vines have decided that they have so much energy that they would send out their secondary and tertiary buds, necessitating us to implement nipping as well as tucking procedures. Our friends came to give us a hand at the task.:

This work continues unabated!