Suckering Season

About 30 days after the vineyard was pruned, green shoots began to grow from the spur positions on each vine. The shoots grow into thick, hard, and brown canes on which the grape clusters hang.

Although we want only 2 shoots to grow from each vine’s 8 spur positions, the vine produces many more than 16 shoots. The shoots can grow anywhere on the vine from the base of the trunk to the spaces between the spur positions. Each of those unwanted shoots is a sucker and must be removed.

The accompanying photos show the same vine immediately before and after it was suckered.  Our vineyard manager’s 11 man crew suckered our 4600 vines in a 9 hour day.

The remaining photo shows Barbara tucking the desirable shoots through the first set of training wires. This is a labor intensive and unskilled task that our vineyard manager allows us to do.  Yay! This photo was taken 2 1/2 months after the photo showing the vineyard pruned. Amazing growth.