We will start this week by removing suckers that appear annually at the base of healthy vines. Sometimes suckers emerge right at the soil line and other times, they grow from the trunk below the soil line. In either situation, they are quite brittle and break off easily. If we don’t remove them, the vine will pour a lot of energy into vegetative growth instead of grapes. If we remove suckers now and for the next week or so, it is easy. If we wait until July, they harden off and have to be cut.
Our Itasca, Verona, and Crimson Pearl were planted two years ago and have not born fruit yet. They need to be tied to the top wire and their growth channeled so we get good quality fruit. The Edelweiss vines are mature but the grow vigorously so they need to be retied every year.
We will be spraying fungicide and herbicide and doing a lot of mowing this week.
