Pre-Pruning

Well this is not so much a family update as much as it is just a general what’s up update . Right now my days in the vineyards have been filled with pre-pruning in preparation for the hand pruning crews that are moving through the vineyards as vines start to bud break.

I tried something new today, used me phone’s camera in the field. I was actually surprised at how good the pictures were considering how old my phone is and how dirty the lens is. But, I figured it might be better to have lesser quality pictures of something than none at all. Leave me a comment and let me know if I should keep doing it or not. Of course I’ll use a real camera whenever I can, but what about in between times; should I use my phone’s or just make a point of taking a camera with me?

Ok, so below is a picture of the Korvan Pre-Pruner we run (I took this picture a while ago, NOT with my phone). It’s pulled with a tractor and is powered by the tractor’s PTO. Basically what it does is cut all of last year’s growth off of the vines except for about 3-4 inches that we will then prune back even more by hand. We have to do the last bit by hand because all of the grapes grow on last years wood so we don’t want to cut it all off. But if we leave too much the vine will get too growthy and then we will have problems next year.

Korvan Pre-Pruner

Then below is a picture of one of the pruning heads. See how it is running right above the cordon arms of the vine. If you look in front of it you can see all the canes it is going to cut off. And then right after it is the finished product.

Pre-pruner head

Here I am operating one of the pruning heads. Sorry I’m not smiling, it’s not it isn’t fun. But the sawdust was blowing right in my face and if I smiled, talked, breathed, or anything I would get a mouth full.

Tyler operating Pre-Pruner

This is a shot showing how the rows of vines we have pre-pruned look from the back of the pre-pruner. Looking down the row the vines on either side have been pruned and you can see how it looks like we just gave them a buzz cut. The rows right outside these haven’t had anything done to them yet though.

Pre-pruned vines

And finally, the way the wind was blowing today, we kept getting a huge pile of pruned sticks stuck in the pre-pruner. If you look at the first picture above, you can kind of tell where the front operator sits and where his feet go. Well below is a shot of how it kept piling up and filling in and overflowing that spot. The pile would get so big that it would be touching the vine rows on both sides of the row and start catching on things and pull itself off.

Pile of canes

-tyler