This is such an exciting time in the vineyard. The weather in California is great, and our vines love it. We are well past flowering and into the berry setting stage where young berries are forming, and the bunches are at a right angle to the stem. The bunches will drop down and hang in the next couple of weeks, and the berries will continue to grow. We can already now see what kind of crop we will get, and the focus is on nurturing the vines.
The vines are growing rapidly, and vegetative growth is high. So we have to “train” the vines to make them grow up instead of out, down, and to the side. I have included a before and after photo of a row where I have trained the vines. Hopefully, you can see the difference!
We use a Vertical Shoot Position system or VSP, and it is a standard and widely used trellis system around the world. In the VSP system, the vine shoots are trained upward in a vertical, narrow curtain with the fruiting zone below. We use three “catch wires” to keep the shoots in place and train the growth in an upward direction. We can then trim the top, should the shoots get too long.
Next week, I will write about myth-busters in viticulture. It should be fun as there are so many misperceptions about wine and winegrowing.
