Another piece of the seasonal jigsaw...

A few posts earlier there was a photo of Daryl Ashby, the Crossroads vineyard manager, pulling out the cut wood from the vine. Well heres the result - he dumps it in the middle of the row. At this point we have two choices in how we deal with it. Clearly it cant stay where it is, the row middles will need to be mowed during the season and the vine cuttings may carry the spores of disease such as Powdery Mildew or Botrytis which could then infect next years fruit.

If we have time, and often we dont, we would like to remove all these cuttings from the vineyard and then burn them. But more often than not we will use our Mulcher (attached to the tractor) and drive down each rows and turn these sticks into a thousand pieces of mulch which then acts as a kind of nutritional compost for the vine.

Just another piece of the seasonal jigsaw to complete. Every task takes time, its usually done manually and theres a particular order to adhere to. Its all working towards the wonderful conclusion next harvest.

Cutting remarks...

Pruning, as I may have mentioned previously, is one of the tougher jobs in the vineyard. Faced with pruning as many as 20000 vines over a 2-3 month period in winter can be a real challenge. Sore backs, arms and wrists are all common ailments.

So despite the somewhat hefty pricetag, electric pruners such as the one above, can be a real lifesaver. The battery pack lasts at least a full day, they are light to hold and easy to use. In addition, a person pruning is generally able to prune more vines and be less physically affected by the end of it all.

Meanwhile, out in the vineyard...

From the end of harvest (around early May) until the start of budburst (early April) the major job required in the vineyard is pruning. It is one of the most time consuming and therefore most expensive tasks in the vineyard calender. And theres no getting away from it - its just hard physical labour.

Most of our vineyards are pruned to 2 canes, each cane having 8-10 buds. The first task is to use the loppers to make the heavy cuts which eliminates most of the previous years wood. In the photo above Daryl Ashby, the vineyard manager for our Crossroads vineyard, is pulling out the cut wood.

From here the next pass through the vineyard will be to select the 2 spurs and the 2 canes which will tied down for the new season. Pruners will trim up each cane, tie it down to the wire and cut off any excess canes not required. Its time consuming and if the vineyard rows are longer than about 200 metres then it can be quite soul destroying for the pruners if they cant finish too many rows in a day.

And into the mix it is winter so it can be cold and miserable. No wonder the industry has labour shortage problems.