When do you plan to start pruning?

Hi Eric, Board member David Hicks here. I would suggest that you wait until till at least end of January. We had a warm fall and very few freezes to shut the vines down. My vineyard is in Lake County at 1400 ft elevation and all the local pro vineyards start pruning in early Feb. You don’t want any capillary action going on in the vines. With capillary action stopped the cuts can scab over and the the new buds zones can be protected much more effectively. But suggest you do it by mid February because the weather this year seems like a dry warm winter. Regards, DH

As a rule of thumb, after the leaves have fallen, the plant is dormant and you can make a clean cut without sap coming from that cut.  For more information this is the UC Agriculture link:  https://ucanr.edu/sites/gardenweb/Growing_Grapes_in_the_California_Garden/?uid=29&ds=436

In response to Ms. Schmaiers reply regarding painting the cut wounds.  This cut wound painting issue came up when I took my courses at Davis during a 6 hours stint pruning in a growers vineyard in the foothills. The Davis instructors said to never do it.  It was something I saw done in Oak trees 60 years ago around my area in Lake County.  No professional grape growers I know ever paint over a properly prune wound cut.  Cut wounds need to be at least 1/2 inch above the cordon or a bud on the cane and should be cut at about an average of 20* so that if the cut does bleed that the sap will run off and a thin coating will seal the wound.   Best way to prevent bleed is to prune as late   as possible but before push.    DH

BTW the comments regarding rain and timing are right on.

Kay:

I prune late February, early March and use VitiSeal as an excellent, safe, approved product for protecting the wound and adding organic chemicals to help the plant naturally seal the wound.

Bill Pence

Tarabrook Vineyard

Hi Eric,  I’m of the opinion that starting new plantings with dormant bench grafts with your cultivar of choice grafted to the rootstock of choice is best.  The nursery will advise on rootstock when you tell them where you are and your soil condition.  Additionally it cuts at least a year off your growth and fruiting cycle.   A challenge could be to find a rootstock nursery that will sell you a handful of product, suspect most will.  You can look up nurseries, there is one between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, another is on Highway 12 going out of Santa Rosa toward Sonoma.   There also might be one in the Livermore Valley.  Best to get on is as April is the best month for planting dormant bench grafts.   DH