Sunday, March 09, 2014

Now, I'm panicking!

I spoke too soon, because I have started to panic.  Why I hadn't bothered to look at the Syrah vines before today is beyond me, so when I did make the effort to go and have a peek at what the vines were up to I was horrified.  I discovered that bud-swell (and lots of budbreak), is much further along than I would have liked.  Drat! 
I had to abandon pruning in the Cabernet vines because the Syrah vines simply cannot wait.  I did, with Vinomaker's help in removing last year's growth from the trellising, get quite a bit pruned.  It makes it very difficult to prune when the buds are so advanced, as even the simple act of pulling the old growth away from the trellis wires can easily knock off adjacent buds - never mind the fiddly process of wrapping and tying down the new canes.
I will get everything pruned eventually, even with my day-job paring into my pruning time, but I will have to accept the loss of some crop.  At least the Orange Muscat and Pinot grigio pruning went smoothly this season.

2 comments:

Do Bianchi said...

Vinogirl, I've been following your posts on the vegetative cycle here (of course). It seems that there's going to be an accelerated vintage on both sides of the Atlantic. Very cool to follow here... keep the posts coming, please.

Vinogirl said...

2B: Thanks for following...of course, I'd be more thankful if you were here to lend me a hand :)