Good weather, defined as no rain nor high winds, has allowed us to start pruning our Edelweiss. This is going to take some time because we have 17 acres of Edelweiss.
While we hadn’t seen any bud growth as of last week, the warm weather last week told our vines to wake up and start moving moisture and nutrients from the roots to the trunk, cordons, and spurs of each vine. While buds have just started to swell, when we prune, we now frequently get squirted with sap. That could be a problem if we have a cold snap later in April and before mid-May. A night with 28°F temperatures for 4–6 hours could cause some damage. We have our fingers crossed.
This is also the time of year that we get prepared to spray our vines with a lime-sulfur spray that is intended to kill or at least reduce the number of overwintering fungus spores. When we are pruning, we also remove dead wood and the remnants of clusters from last year because they can also be overwintering sites. We try to spray just as buds are starting to swell but before they show any green leaves. But, because we can’t spray when it is windy or when it is raining, etc., we must hit it just right. The actual fungal diseases we want to prevent are Black Rot, Phomopsis, and Anthracnose.
