Tablas Creek just posted a before and after shot of shoot thinning in their vineyard. I’m always afraid of going too far so found these two shots to be helpful in being bold….
Before
And after
Before
And after
Shoot thinning by professionals
- Thread starter GSMChris
- Start date
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…and be prepared to do that 4 more times 
Tablas Creek looks like they are shoot thinnning right. My spurs are closer together, so that my canopy looks more crowded. I need to drop a few spur locations I think and get more air flow.
Wow, my Marquette vines are so productive I should thin them but probably won’t . I think the root system can support a large canopy. I thinned a couple rows last year and there was no difference.
where's Waldo?
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That looks like two vines per eight foot section.
Yes 4' spacing. I went back and forth on 4, 6, or 8.
Had I known how vigorous they would be I might have gone to 8'.
To make it worse, most of the vines have multiple trunks.
The initial logic was to have a lower and upper fruiting zone (cover the full 10'+ of wall and fence). Unfortunately my skills and available time ended that dream.
This is about year 7 and the first year I have some grouping of upper and lower grapes.
I like the sprawling look and in the winter the tighter spacing looks better.
So we finished shoot thinning today. Thinnings got thrown in the aisles - I’ll mow them this week sometime
Here’s an after shot of a Syrah vine - I wasn’t organized enough to do a before
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