We started pruning at Tassel Ridge. More than 50% of the Tassel Ridge vineyard is planted with Edelweiss. Edelweiss has a peculiar habit of wrapping itself along the top wire making long pruning with our mechanical pruner very challenging. But, most of the long pruning will be done early this week. We will have to go back and do more hand work to get these vines pruned right. In order to fix this problem for future years, we will do a lot more combing of the Edelweiss this year in order to get it to lay down off the high wire. Initially this will be labor intensive, however, once we get it started, it should be easier in future years.
Mike White and Dr. Diana Cochran from ISU Extension, came out on Tuesday, April 7, a cold and blustery day to see the pruner working and to shoot some video of the pruning action. You can watch Mike’s 5:45 minute video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82MfLjQSI8I&feature=youtu.be
We can definitely see that the vines are considerably more vigorous this year than they were last year. We assume this is because of the fertilizer we applied last year. Hopefully, this will translate into a heavier crop this year.
