The vineyard staff has about 26,000 of 38,000 vines pruned. All pruning now is final pruning. The chances of a hard freeze yet this spring are dropping every day. Nonetheless, we are keeping our eyes open to the possibility of a freeze.
We have vines at Newport Lane and Meadowcreek to prune. We will start fixing broken H-braces (the very stout first ten feet of both ends of every row), spraying lime-sulfur on trunks and cordons, and monitoring our wastewater treatment lagoon.
It is truly amazing how grape vines that were dormant with very little bud development have responded to only ten days of warmer temperatures. The sap, which resides in the roots during the winter, is now rising in the vines. In fact, when we prune, we commonly get squirted in the face with sap. This illustrates the pressure that the sap is under. It won’t be long before the buds break and we have leaves on the vines.
