With the help of nice weather, we are moving right along in pruning the Marquette. By mid-week, we will move into the St. Croix and Frontenac at Meadowcreek Vineyard. Adam hopes to be able to mechanically prune Newport Lane Vineyard by Friday.
So, how do we decide which varieties to prune first and which should be left to the end of pruning season? Because we start pruning on or about March 1, when it is usually cold, a close-by shed in which we can warm up is a priority. It happens that we have a shed right in the middle of the Marquette so we start with Marquette. Also, our Marquette is vigorous and we have a lot of work to do to clean out long canes. Then, we move to St. Croix and Frontenac because we have an excess of those grapes so if we get a late freeze, losing those buds and their grapes won’t be a crisis. By that time, it is April so we finish up with all of the varieties at Meadowcreek, Newport Lane (except Foch), and Maple Woods. We leave our 17 acres of Edelweiss at Tassel Ridge to near the end of our annual pruning because we’ve found that Edelweiss is most sensitive to a late frost. We finish up with the Foch at Newport Lane because we like to have them budded out so we can see exactly what we are leaving on the vine.
