The end of the old and the beginning of a new year

Spring has arrived in the vineyard if not on the calendar. The vines were pruned this week. My small Pinot vineyard took about 3 hours to prune. Many growers pruned at the end of January, but we delayed pruning as part of our frost protection strategy. Delaying pruning is thought to delay bud break, giving a few extra weeks that the plants aren't at risk from a freeze. Newly budded vines are the most vulnerable to freezing conditions.

My vines are "cane pruned". The process starts by cutting off last year's fruiting arms, leaving a single cane on each of the arms near the vine's trunk. The arms are the heavier wood that is tied to the trellis wire. [picture 1] The canes are the growth that comes out of the fruiting arms and fan out and up. The two canes which were not pruned are each trimmed to leave 8 nodes (bud locations) [picture 2] and tied to the trellis wire forming two new arms.

All this year's growth will start at the nodes on the two new arms.[picture 3].