I am happy that spring temperatures have been cool! I just finished pruning my row of Vincent grapes and the buds have just started swelling. The demo vineyard was completed earlier. I remember in 2007 when the Easter freeze hit in early April, Vivant shoots were about 3 – 4 inches long in the demo vineyard. Today, the Vivant buds are not as swelled as the Vincent.

I marked three Vincent vines as my reference plants. They are:
Vine no. 9 from west – 2 lbs. pruning weight
Vine no. 19 from east – 5.5 lbs. pruning weight
Vine no. 7 from east – 4 lbs. pruning weight.
I will leave about 60 buds per vine in most cases, and will record yield from the three reference plants.

I think the field supervisors will also be happy that I finally finished my row. They completed their pruning some time ago and were giving me not so subtle hints to finish mine (Randy with “Marilyn, are you going to prune that row?”; Jeremy with “Marilyn do you need any help pruning your row?”; and Steven with combination stare and raised eyebrows when pruning my row was mentioned.)