Who has pruned their vines already?

[GreginND]

After their first year my vines got pruned down to just a few buds on Saturday. Planning on growing some good straight trunks this year. I was very happy to see how nice and green they were. I was worried about our extended -20F weather. The buds looked pretty brown but the wood is fine. I'm glad this extreme winter was in their first year and not later when I am trying for a crop.

 

[ibglowin]

Slow and steady wins the race Rich!

I began to prune here last Friday and am about 15% done now. It will go faster when I get some help and am feeling better. I am a week and a half out of a chemo treatment and that always slows me down a bit for a couple weeks or so. It hit 80F today, a high of 63 tomorrow and then 38 for Wednesday. I feel like a YoYo.

 

[HillPeople]

Just pruned my 1st year Louise down to 2 buds yesterday, Nice green wood despite the wicked winter. I have many vines to go though.

 

[exarkun]

This is no good. I pruned mine on the 7th, as we were in the 70's and long term forecast was 50's and up. Now this week it got cold again and we had a foot of snow yesterday morning and this morning was a hard frost =(

 

[LoveTheWine]

Bud break!

 

[topkeg]

Here in southeast Texas we already have some significant vine growth, even clusters forming. But, here's a question I have as a newbie: some of the vines I planted (two months ago) didn't get properly watered. Being that I'm only at the farm every two weeks I didn't catch the problem right away. These vines have not shown any bud break compared to others with a foot of growth. So, prune those back heavily? How long before giving up on them? The vines are three year old plants with significant root structure. But a good chance tHe roots went dry for several weeks in the dirt.


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[spaniel]

I did a rough pruning a couple weeks ago, but am now waiting a few more days to go in and do a final cut as I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what was alive and undamaged. My reds (Foch, Oberlin Noir, and Marquette) were mostly fine with some death on the smaller diameter wood.

My Cayuga, unfortunately, appear to be another story. We had three consecutive -15F days and then another couple later on. Everything under about 3/8" in diameter is definitely dead. What was green when I cut it is now browning with no sign of bud break, although there was some water weeping a week after I cut it.

At this point I think the best I can hope for is that the 2 feet of snow on the ground protected the roots and I can bring up new trunks. Kind of depressing to put 6 years into the vines, get a couple good crops with close to 1gal/vine yield last year, and then lose them.

 

[TicinoVintner]

I did a rough pruning a couple weeks ago, but am now waiting a few more days to go in and do a final cut as I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what was alive and undamaged. My reds (Foch, Oberlin Noir, and Marquette) were mostly fine with some death on the smaller diameter wood.

My Cayuga, unfortunately, appear to be another story. We had three consecutive -15F days and then another couple later on. Everything under about 3/8" in diameter is definitely dead. What was green when I cut it is now browning with no sign of bud break, although there was some water weeping a week after I cut it.

At this point I think the best I can hope for is that the 2 feet of snow on the ground protected the roots and I can bring up new trunks. Kind of depressing to put 6 years into the vines, get a couple good crops with close to 1gal/vine yield last year, and then lose them.

That really sucks, let's hope some suckers push through. Don't cont them as dead just yet.



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[LoveTheWine]

Speaking of sucking. I accidentally left my gate open on Sunday night and a deer came through wiping out almost all my new shoots
Some of the leafs hadn't opened so these were left alone

I'm hoping the vines will push new shoots out.

The only saving grace is that this is only yr. two so I wasn't leaving any clusters to grow... only green stuff.

 

[spaniel]

That really sucks, let's hope some suckers push through. Don't cont them as dead just yet.



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So far, 1/2 to 2/3 of the vines have clear growth within 2" of the ground, ready to produce new trunks. Out of 20 vines, I can't say there are more than 2-3 that have ANY buds alive on the current canes.

I will give them a few weeks, hoping as many as possible come back from the root. I can live with losing 1-2 years getting back to production. Have to replant a significant number would be heartbreaking. I'm not sure what I would do then; do you abandon a variety because it gave up in a once-in-50-to-100-year winter? That seems a high bar.

 

[garymc]

10 percent of my muscadine vines have not come out of dormancy. They happen to be the smallest/newest vines, so they could be late or dead from the severe winter. The bad thing is that if I give them more time before I give up on them, it's awfully late to dig up a vine and transplant it. The 90+ degree weather is just around the corner.

 

[exarkun]

This is no good. I pruned mine on the 7th, as we were in the 70's and long term forecast was 50's and up. Now this week it got cold again and we had a foot of snow yesterday morning and this morning was a hard frost =(

Most of my Marquette vines had buds appear this weekend! Hopefully the rest start as well in the next couple days.

 

[GreginND]

My vines are starting to show signs of bud swelling. YAY!

 

[grapeman]

Things are coming to life slowly this year. Hang in there and before you know it, it will be harvest time.

 

[TicinoVintner]

I'm already cluster thinning, controlling suckers and removing laterals. The new vines are looking good as well.


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[grapeman]

Wow, when I think of Switzerland I think mountainous and cold. It's hard to believe you are that far along already. Spring just got here!

 

[Kraffty]

We're a bit ahead of schedule here on the west coast, this is one of my white vines this weekend. Probably 60-80 clusters this year.
Mike

 

[Mark64]

My Riesling vines look dead. Concord have buds.

 

[spaniel]

So far, 1/2 to 2/3 of the vines have clear growth within 2" of the ground, ready to produce new trunks. Out of 20 vines, I can't say there are more than 2-3 that have ANY buds alive on the current canes.

I will give them a few weeks, hoping as many as possible come back from the root. I can live with losing 1-2 years getting back to production. Have to replant a significant number would be heartbreaking. I'm not sure what I would do then; do you abandon a variety because it gave up in a once-in-50-to-100-year winter? That seems a high bar.

So a couple weeks ago I took the chainsaw to the vineyard...it was a sad day. I cut all 20 Cayuga down to within 3-4 inches of the ground. So far all but one is putting out new sprouts, and all but 2 doing so very vigorously. The shoot attachment point on this variety is very fragile so I have to be careful bending them up to tie -- I've selected for the most vertical shoots and removed the rest -- but many are already back up to the top wire. This time, I'm changing to a two trunk TWC training system.

Lesson 1 I have learned from this is that if a vine looks marginal, just cut it off. A few of the Oberlin Noir had 50-75% but death, but I thought with a year off cropping they might come back OK so I left them. Well, that was a mistake as it appears that doing so discouraged new shoots from the root and the old growth has now completely died off -- I think those vines are now a total loss. I wish I would have taken the chainsaw to them to. So for many of the ones that had significant bud death (25-50%), even though I left them for now and they are cropping, I am allowing new trunks to grow up from the root, and will remove the old growth during the dormant season if the new is big enough to replace.

Lesson 2 I have learned is I need to put a spray sign up. My neighbor on the property line owns a lawncare business. I have made a point of having the discussion with him at least twice in the 7 years I have been here that grape vines are very, VERY sensitive to many sprays -- especially 2,4-D -- and that is why I put them far from my property line with him (where he mixes spray). Last week I saw him driving around the neighborhood with his self-propelled sprayer. Last weekend I notices that the broadleafs in the shallow ditch on the frontage of my property...not 10 yards from the outer row of vines...were curling like they'd been sprayed with 2,4-D and I could see tracks in the grass. I think he did me a "favor" and sprayed for me. Leaves on the vines show obvious 2,4-D damage...mostly minor...but I can't help but think this is related to the subsequent rapid death of some of the weaker vines in the nearest row.

I have a voicemail in to him tonight to tell him I appreciate the thought but not to do it again!

 

[LoveTheWine]

Well it is that time of year again. It has been unseasonably warm around here and so I took the opportunity to prune my vines.
These are Marechal Foch starting their 3rd year. I plan on doing a 1/2 crop this year (first time cropping).