Second year pruning - should I head the green cordon?

[johngg123]

Hey everyone, I'm here in Southern California on my second year growing from dormant bench grafts (Cab Sav 101-14) training them to be VSP. Following Jeff Cox's advice, after the first year I pruned off all but the best cane which reached the bottom wire, and left only 5-7 buds for this years new growth. This year I hope to have 3-5 strong new canes to select the 2 cordons (once dormant.)

Here's my situation on a couple of vines: I've got ONLY ONE new cane off last year's wood and it is massive (8 feet long) with a 5-7 laterals growing upward off the new cane. There is bud swell on 3-5 other buds on the old wood. Should I head (cut) the new cane back to 4-5 feet (a little more than my desired cordon length) to encourage bud break and growth on the missing canes? Should I cut the lateral shoots growing off the new cane as well?

I hate to cut back the only growth on the vine but I also don't want to be stuck with just one long cordon.

Thanks!

John

 

[grapeman]

If you cut it off just below or at the wire, it will force laterals to grow (if not already). You should get two shoots slightly below the wire that can become future cordons. Let them grow upwards while green so you don't break them trying to bend. Then as they lignify, you can tie them down to become the cordons.

 

[johngg123]

Grapeman, thanks for the reply. Sorry if I used the wrong terms, but to clarify, last year's cane reached the wire and the problem is that this year there is only one lateral growing from last year's wood. I has grown 8 ft along the wire. Should I cut the lateral back from 8 ft to ~5 ft in order to encourage other laterals to form?

John

 

[grapeman]

What I described is the normal way of producing your cordons in the second year. It sounds like you tried to rush it a bit and now are having to deal with canes full of apical dominance. If during dormant pruning you had cut the trunk just below the wire, you would have had shoots grow to select the cordons from. Maybe a picture would help some of us help you better.

 

[johngg123]

Sure thing, here's some pics to clear things up. During dormant pruning I did cut the trunk just below the wire.

In wide-view picture, the red dashed line is this year's new growth alone the wire (the new cordon.) The blue dashes are green shoots coming out of the new green cane. The red solid line is where I hope to get a new green cane to run along the wire in the other direction (the other missing cordon.)

In the close up picture, the red dash line is the new growth cane (cordon) just like the other pic, and the red marks are the swollen buds on the trunk (old wood) that I hope to encourage a least one new cane to grow from.

So my question is, should I chop off the red dashed line half way at about 4'? Should I hack off the blue lines? (new shoots coming out of new cane)

Hope the pictures help, thanks!

John

 

[grapeman]

You could always lay down the first blue dashed line shoot as the other cordon if the first bud below the wire doesn't grow. If you cut off the red dashed cordon now, it will just make the blue dashes grow more. Seldom do we get perfect vines that do everything we want.

 

[johngg123]

Great idea! I've cut back the red dotted line a little bit and removed a couple blue lines that are farther away from the trunk. I'll let the rest play out and see what it looks like in winter.. Thanks Grapeman!


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