Pruning Vines.
As you can see from the video , David prunes with electric sectuers (though he does use manual as well) this helps with a clean cut and for us to go faster.
When we prune we select a main branch from last years growth, the critrea for this is ; a healthy light colour branch that had grape bunches last year , pencil thickness with 5 to 8 buds which usually works out to be about half a metre long.
A reserve branch is also kept , this will have only 3 buds and about 8 to 10cm long, we do this in case we have a late frost or hit with disease, this reserve usually survives giving us a few bunches of grapes but more importantly a main branch for next year.
We have found over the years we can spot which branches we will keep and which branches we will cut away within the first glance as we work towards each vine.
Once all the dead wood is pulled away we take the main branch and wrap it around the wire, we do this as to train the vines so that the new growth grows upwards and the bunches of grapes hang down, making it easier to pick either by hand or machine.
We will show you throughout the course of the growing season how this vine progresses ,to give you an insight into what happens as we go through the year.
