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Stella Bella
 
5 July 2016 | Stella Bella

Winter Pruning

Winter Pruning & Vine Balance

A small and simple snapshot of winter vine pruning. 

Aims of Pruning

  • Establish/maintain vine structure for ease of management
  • To produce the target yield of desired quality
  • To select fruitful nodes that are efficiently spread across the vine
  • To regulate vegetative and reproductive growth to achieve vine balance (sustainability)
  • To fill the trellis to achieve economic efficiency

Definitions

  • Node: dormant grapevine bud
  • Internode: cane length between grapevine buds
  • Base bud: bud closest to old wood (not as fruitful or produce shoot)
  • Count node/bud:  all buds on cane above base bud
  • Shoot: green vegetative growth during current season
  • Lateral:  produced from the lateral buds in shoots during the growing season. Usually a sign of vine vigour or poor trimming practices
  • Cane:  brown, woody shoots with nodes that contain shoots and fruit
  • Bull cane: thick strong growth with long internodes. Size is not indicative of stored reserves
  • Cordon: permanent, unfruitful wood (2+ years), characterised by loose shredding bark
  • Apical dominance: the tendency of stronger shoot growth at the ends of canes, sometimes resulting in uneven bud burst and blind budding in the mid cane region
  • Crown dominance: stronger shoot growth in the crown area
  • Blind budding:  buds that don’t burst at all
  •  

Spur Pruning

  • Leaving 1-4 node ‘spurs’ on a permanent cordon
  • Cuts back 1yr old wood, need to be fruitful, evenly spaced, can be barrel/machine pruned, fast and cheaper
  • Establish internode length, spur orientation and length, cut

Cane Pruning

  • Replacing the main bearers (arms) of the vine each year
  • Used on varieties with unfruitful basal buds, increases yield, improves canopy openness
  • Establish ‘V’ depth, select cane and replacement, select node spacing along wire, wrap down
Benefits of Cane and Spur Pruning
Issue Spur Cane
Cost of pruning Cheaper More expensive
Staff training Easy for staff More difficult for staff
Mechanisation Suitable for machine pruning Unsuitable
Yield Usually lower yielding Higher yielding
Biannual yielding Prone to biannual yielding Less prone to large seasonal variations
Canopy management Extra shoot thining may be required Minimal shoot thining

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