We have started pruning Norton Grapes since they are one of the most cold hardy varities we grow. We collect the weight of new growth on a test vine in the vineyard and that helps us to determine how many buds to leave when pruning. The standard for Norton when spur pruning is 50 buds for the first pound of pruning weight off the test vine and then 10 buds for every additional pound. Our test vine only had 1.6 pounds of wood. We would hope for that to be higher, especially in Norton, but with the cold kill we experienced last year this is on secondary and tertiary buds so this is not too bad all things considered. With 1.6 pounds of test vine weight that would call for 55 buds, so allow the vines to recover from last year’s cold kill we are going to prune to 50 buds. Since we train to a bilateral cordon system, that will consist of 5 spurs on each side with 5 buds on each shoot.

 

Photos to follow…