{"id":814,"date":"2020-02-28T18:05:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/?p=814"},"modified":"2021-12-21T23:25:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T23:25:35","slug":"winter-pruning-guiding-the-vine-for-the-growing-season-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/winter-pruning-guiding-the-vine-for-the-growing-season-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Pruning: Guiding the Vine for the Growing Season Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Preparing the\nvines for the growing season is hard work, but it\u2019s the year\u2019s first critical\nstep toward healthy fruit, and ultimately beautiful wines. Pruning is the\npractice of removing the previous season\u2019s vine growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall goal\nof winter pruning is to prepare the vines for the upcoming growing season. Removing\nthe canes helps to construct the location and development of the canopy. A\nproperly constructed and open canopy has great influence on fruit quantity and\nquality. It generally takes our vineyard crew several days to complete each\nindividual vineyard, but it\u2019s one of the most important vineyard operations of\nthe year and is well worth the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pruning Chardonnay vines at our Lewis Vineyard in Carneros<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The timing of winter\npruning is crucial as it must occur when our vines are dormant. Pruning too\nearly can disrupt nutrient transfer within the vine while pruning too late can\npossibly lead to a delayed bud break. We typically prune in February, adjusting\nfor any rainy weather that may come our way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cane removal at our Winston Hill Vineyard in Rutherford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

METHOD<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

With the cane pruning\nmethod, the optimal canes from the previous season\u2019s growth are chosen to be\nthe new fruiting canes, and the other canes are removed. Our vineyard crew meticulously\nsearches for healthy canes that will promote ideal fruit orientation with open\nclusters, even sunshine exposure, and airflow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cane pruning\nremoves buds, that would otherwise become new shoots and bear fruit the\nfollowing season. By removing buds, growth is concentrated into the remaining\nbuds, and eventually, canopy and fruit development. It therefore helps achieve\nvine balance and desired yield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tying selected canes to trellis to prepare for new growth at Winston Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Winter is perceived as our slow month in the vineyard, but it is certainly not void of activity. With 380 planted acres of vines, winter pruning is not a small task for us. It is time and labor intensive for our crew, requiring precision and skill. Winter pruning is also often coupled with other vineyard practices such as post replacement, cane tying, and tilling the soil. The fun never stops! Now we eagerly await bud break, signaling the start of a new growth cycle.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preparing the vines for the growing season is hard work, but it\u2019s the year\u2019s first critical step toward healthy fruit, and ultimately beautiful wines. Pruning is the practice of removing the previous season\u2019s vine growth. The overall goal of winter pruning is to prepare the vines for the upcoming growing season. Removing the canes helps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[7,18,189,81,14,186,190],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vineyards-winemaking","tag-featured","tag-napa-valley","tag-pruning","tag-vineyard","tag-wine","tag-wine-101","tag-wine-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/i-5mgRh6P-X5-2.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/parYsd-d8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}