Spring is getting close. Each day the sun seems to be a little warmer than the day before. It’s the time you want to use to get vines & vineyards in shape before they start growing again.
First job is pruning. All but two canes from the last season are removed. Ideally one on the left side and one on the right side of the head to keep all parts of the trunk busy.
After the vineyards have been pruned it’s time to fix the wire frames. The tractor plus the pruning scissors do a little damage here and there, some of the old wooden poles just start rotting at some point …
An then, finally, one of the remaining canes gets tied to the wire so new canes can grow out of each bud. The other one – the “frost cane” will remain as a backup in case late frost causes damage. Like it did in 2014. So last year we were happy to have those ten extra buds! This is how it looks now on all of our vineyards:
The next 2-3 weeks we’ll plant little vines in older vineyards to fill some gaps plus a new wire frame needs to be built for the Riesling we planted last year. It’s good to leave the winter work behind.
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