Thanks for stopping by and i hope you find this interesting.
Considering i spend most of my time here on AP when i'm not working, i thought i would write a little about my job. I am a viticulturist just a fancy word for someone who works in vineyards.
The grapes are for wine making purposes only, you can eat them directly off the vine but having too much can give you a belly ache.
I have been in this field of work for the last 9 years but only recently got myself a managers position looking after 4 1/2 acres of vines. Most people think that working in a vineyard consists of picking grapes ! well thats definately not the case. The season always begins with pruning first which is in the winter months of June,July,August. Pruning to the desired number of buds which gives the owners the tonnage they require, ofcourse this is always an average count because there is no time to spend counting exactly how many buds you have left. The month of September is Spring and it's when bud burst happens, the first couple of leaves unfold and this is where we start the first spraying schedule which consists of copper and sulphur. Spraying is carried out every 10-14 days and it's done to eliminate any spores of powdery mildew or downey mildew.
Since it's spring i'll explain about why we remove unwanted shoots.
Some varieties of vines especially Pinot Noir produce 2 shoots from the one bud so in order to drop the tonnage we remove one shoot from each double shoot. Below is a photo taken by me of a double shoot.
We also clean the crown area which is very subseptical to disease because there is not enough air flow and also not enough sun to influence photo syntheseis.
Below is a photo taken by me of the crown area not yet cleaned.
Here is a photo of the crown area cleaned. You can see how much of a difference it makes in the sense of better air flow and sun exposure.
Another task that is completed along side shoot thinning is bud and shoot removal of the vines trunk. If you don't remove these unwanted shoots what happens is that the vines nutrients get delivered to those shoots resulting in the canopy to stop growth or slow down while concentrating on growth in that area.
Below is a photo of a vine not yet cleared of trunk growth.
Here is a pic of the trunk being cleaned of those shoots.
Well i think i've pretty much covered the removal shoots during spring time. Look out for part 2 when it's time for moving wires to hold the canopy's weight.
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