My vines are very prolific , should I cut the growing tip off at 4’ length? Will that make the shoot bushier? Last year I let the vines grow and ended up with very long shoots that made spraying a lot more difficult.
Pruning question , cutting growing shoot tips
- Thread starter wood1954
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I clip my PP and Briana at the point where the header is touching the next plant in the row. My impression from picking is that Drumlin Ridge does the same. Bushy? DR does thinning over the growing season, ,, to expose clusters to light. I am more lazy, or is it that I don’t have a vineyard manager tasked with this. Yes Frontenac and Briana can have an excessive growth pattern.
If they do it , it seems to show, their Marquette wine is great. I was thinking of doing what you do and doing a little every day. Last year I had shoots twelve feet long. I did find a video of a California vineyard removing tips as well.
I regularly hedge vines and 4 to 5 feet is a lot of leaf area to ripen grapes. But you will get lateral growth and now have a dense canopy. You need to do what is best for your environment. Hedging could make a tight, airless canopy that is difficult to spray. Witholding water can help slow growth also. Tying a cane to the trunk pointed downward can also slow the growth of the overall vine.
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