Summer Care - Canopy Management.

Grapevines left to their own devices soon become a tangled mass of stems leaves and tendrils growing in every direction. So like unruly children they need to be properly trained if they are to give their best.

This need not be complicated but if carried out properly will make life for you and your grapevine a whole lot easier.

Firstly the growing shoots need to be trained upright. It doesnt matter whether you use catch wires as happens in open vineyards or as I do tying the shoots in, or some other method, as long as somehow they are kept growing upwards.

This needs to begin early in the season and carry on right through the season.

Secondly removing the side shoots or laterals greatly help keeping the canopy open. It's the same principle as growing cordon tomatoes in that removing the laterals make both types of plants grow better.

Some grape growers remove the whole lateral, I pinch to one leaf as I think the extra foliage is an advantage once leaf removal around the fruit clusters begins. More on that later.

Here is a lateral before pinching

And the same lateral after pinching.

Since the shoots are being tied in I remove the tendrils as they grow. While this is not strictly necessary it stops the tendrils twining around anything they can.

The other summer management is leaf removal, as mentioned above, and surplus cluster removal. More on these in a later post.