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Early to mid-summer is an important time for your grapevines and vineyard. Your vines should have budded out and begun shoot growth with great vigor. What are the important vineyard cultural practices you should be doing in the vineyard as they begin their rapid growth period before blooming?
You should take note of certain cultural practices that will maintain your vines health and maximize the vine's yield. Of utmost importance is disbudding and suckering your vines. Disbudding is the removal of new shoots where they are not wanted or needed along the trunk, canes, or cordon arms.
Grapevines are like unruly children in the spring and early summer. They want to push buds wherever they can. But these unwanted shoots take vigor and productivity away from those buds and shoots you left at pruning time to produce the crop for this year.
You should remove any newly forming shoots that are not where you want them. This means that any shoots that form along the trunk from the ground to the bottom wire need to be removed. This operation can be performed easily and quickly when the shoots are a few inches long. They can be knocked off individually with a "flick" of your finger at this time as they are succulent and fragile.
It is also easy to run your gloved hand, wrapped around the trunk, up and down removing these newly formed shoots. If they are left too long, they will lignify (harden), and be harder to remove. You will need pruning shears to do this if not done when they are young.
Any shoots that arise along the fruiting cane you left at pruning time or along the cordon arm and spurs if you are spur pruning that are not wanted or needed should also be disbudded. These are shoots that are arising from the fruiting buds that are not producing fruit and are crowding those that are.
These may be secondary or tertiary buds that budded out at the same time as the primary, fruit producing buds did. Theoretically, you want only shoots from the primary bud to grow and produce grapes. Any other shoots crowd this shoot, shade it, and compete with the primary shoot, thus making it ripen later and lessoning the yield.
Suckering is the removal of shoots that arise from the crown of the vine at ground level or from the roots. Suckers rob the vine of it's vigor. These are also known as water-shoots as they rob precious moisture from the shoots that you want to develop fruit. If left to grow, not only do they rob your vine, but they will harden off into fruitless bull shoots.
These should be removed early as to force energy and growth to the developing shoots on the trellis wires. When suckering is performed early, they are easily pulled. Later in the season, this will be harder and pruning shears may be needed. I've found that a curved linoleum knife is also handy to sucker shoots with.
You want maximum sunlight to the shoots that are to produce your grape crop. Another vineyard cultural practice you should perform is tying up the shoots to the upper trellis wires is needed to keep the grape shoots separate, growing upward, and well placed for maximum sunlight penetration with upright and semi-upright growing grape varieties. These varieties are trained to the lowest trellis wire at pruning time. If done properly the vines will look like a wall of leaves from the bottom wire to the top of the trellis.
Grape varieties that droop and are trained to the upper, high-wire of the trellis need to be "combed". This cultural practice involves separating the growing shoots from tangling with each other and training every other shoot to one side of the trellis or the other side. This makes for a flowing curtain of shoots and leaves on either side of the trellis.
If you live in an area where your growing season is very short, you will have a hard time getting your grapes to come to full ripeness. This will mean low sugar content and high acidity. The best means to get your grapes to ripen fully is to cluster thin them.
Cluster thinning grapevines means removing all but the most basal cluster on each shoot. This is done anytime after the shoot has begun rapid growth until the grapes turn color. The best time is before they bloom.
Cluster thinning means losing some yield. But I've found that if this is done before bloom, the yield is only reduced by one third. The remaining clusters have a better fruit set and the berries are larger than if not cluster thinned. This is why the yield is not halved. If you cluster thin after bloom, you run the risk of losing more yield. This is more true if you leave this operation until the grapes begin to change color.
Cluster thinning enables your grapes to ripen fully. It also increases the quality of the fruit. This means that they will make a better wine if that is your purpose. Eating grapes don't usually need cluster thinning but you will gain quality, even with these varieties.
Each of these vineyard cultural practices directs the vine's energy to where you want it. They maintain health and vigor of the grapevine. These vineyard operations will help you maximize the vine's yield and quality. By performing these vineyard cultural operations, you will find not only greater yield and vigor but that the life you your grapevine will be extended.
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