Winter damage to trunks - when to just train up a new sucker?

[user 36973]

This last winter wasn't particularly cold but it had some major cold events when the vines were not totally prep'ed for the depths of winter. We hit 4'F at the beginning of November last fall, less than a month after the leaves had fallen. This summer I've noticed some damage and root-let growth to some Seyval Blanc trunks which otherwise seemed to have healthy shoots and growth. Is the damage seen the attached photo an issue that will become more serious later or will it be healed as the trunk continues to grow around the damaged area. The vines are 4 years old.

 

[clusterbuster75]

that might be all about cold temps, but it just might, imho, have been influenced by soil drainage, i.e. wet feet.

 

[salcoco]

open wound of this sort seem to be a given for bacterial damage. I would suggest a new shot as soon as possible. maybe next growing season as to late for this one.

 

[user 36973]

I wanted to give an update on how this played out this summer. I did train up many replacement trunks but I left a number of vines "as is" as an experiment to assess the impact to their growth. The vines on the damaged trunks did successfully put out (weakish) growth and did ripen fruit. However they did not harden off this fall, with some trunks even splitting and others exhibiting significant phloem damage. The lack of hardening off occurred whether or not a sucker had been trained up as a replacement trunk.

This forum is a treasure trove of knowledge. Thanks for all the good advice above. It was on the mark as usual!

 

[user 36973]

just might, imho, have been influenced by soil drainage, i.e. wet feet.

This is an interesting observation. This damage primarily did occur to vines in a swale in the field. I hadn't noticed the swale when I planted the block otherwise I would have left it as an open pathway. Adding to the water level in this swale was that my neighbor's house had a water leak for much of last summer which drained right through the swale. It's something I'll keep an eye on should there be a repeat event of trunk damage.