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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Pruning Essentials

I can across another timely article in our Wine Business Monthly journal. It's called Site-specific Pruning Simplified written by Mark Greenspan. Here are some pruning rules mentioned in that article.
No Skinny Stuff
  • Don't leave skinny wood
  • Dormant buds and early-emerging shoots rely on stored carbohydrate in the woody tissues nearby until leaves become functional and begin photosynthesis
  • Leaving skinny wood starves the buds and young shoots for energy when they need it most
  • In cane-pruned vines, skinny wood slows bud emergence, and sometimes buds don’t burst at all
  • Weak wood will leave weak shoots and canes that will be skinny the following year
  • Excessive buds retained at pruning will weaken the vine over time and could potentially create ancillary problems, such as greater disease susceptibility
  • Vines that have been overtaxed by overly generous pruning (i.e., leaving more buds than they should have) continue to be weak
  • Prune to wood that is no less than 1 centimeter in diameter (three-eighths of an inch)
  • Leaving thicker, stronger wood will produce more uniform and stronger shoots and canes
  • Thick canes with long internodes and that are possibly also flattened/oval-shaped, rather than round in cross-section, are often poor choices for cane-pruning
  • Eight to 10 buds per cane will usually do; any more can lead to uneven budbreak
Timing
  • Budbreak timing will be affected by the timing of pruning
  • Susceptibility to spring frosts is an important consideration as is susceptibility to poor weather during bloom and fruit set
  • Early pruning is really only beneficial if fruit ripening is difficult in a particular situation; otherwise later is better
Finer Aspects of Pruning
  • Avoid large flush cuts to older wood because they will die back and create zones of desiccation that will interfere with the vascular system of the trunk or cordon
Last year, we applied the Simonit & Sirch Pruning Techniques to our vineyard and we think we achieved some good results. Please check out that link if you are interested in that technique. Photos of pruned vines come from our friend in the UK, Cameron Roucher, the vineyard manager at Rathfinney.
References:
1. Mark Greenspan, Site-specific Pruning Simplified, Wine Business Monthly, January 2020.

2 comments:

  1. Hello,
    My name is Valentin TRUSCA.
    I live in Romania. I learned a few days ago about the Simonit & Sirch vine cutting method. I would like to learn it too. I want to apply it gradually in my parents' small vineyard of 2500 square meters.
    I would like to ask you what results you have obtained so far and how difficult was it to apply it in your vineyard? What advice could you give me so that I can learn this method more easily and how can I apply it successfully?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Valentin,
    A good reference to look at is:
    http://www.winetwork-data.eu/intranet/libretti/0/libretto16497-01-1.pdf
    The Simonit & Sirch method is used to reduce trunk diseases. What the method basically entails is to prune the vines leaving enough space between the pruned vine and the truck to form a "cone of dessication" so that diseases don't have a portal of entry into the trunk. We have had very good success with the method. It's time for me to review pruning methods as we prepare to go back into the vineyard so I will write another blogpost. Good luck on taking care of your parent's vineyard!

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