Al you keep the same trunk/trunks, but usually pick 4 new canes that grew well this year but aren't bull canes. You keep ones the correct thickness and long enough to go over the top wire and bend over down to the second wire. The bend is supposed to check the growth somewhat. This is only the umbrella kniffen I used on the Catawba. The rest are pruned other ways. I am trying to sort out what works best with my soil on my varieties. So far I have tentatively seen the Leon Millot, St. Pepin and LaCrosse do best on the 4-Arm Kniffen. The Frontenac definitely did better on the VSP. I liked the way the umbrella kniffen performed with the Catawba as opposed to Fan or 4 Arm Kniffen. Don't mirror my methods because they may not work for you.
Thr Frontenac dropped about 75 percent of their leaves TODAY. Others have frozen hard now, but are still hanging tough. I plan NO spray this autumn. MY grapes are clean enough to me to be happy(vines and all). I don't want to waste spray, pollute the environment more than needed or contribute to disease resistance buildup. Every vineyard should be evaluated itself to determine if a spray is beneficial. I had some folks out this afternoon picking Niagara grapes. They were in awe over how clean and big the clusters were. I told them they are normally bigger, but they had overcropped this year and I hadn't thinned them. We got about 40 pounds per vine of them. They said they are used to picking tiny cluster of tiny diseased grapes. They thought they were very sweet also- but the brix was the lowest I have ever had to harvest Niagara grapes.
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