I pruned the vineyard in February this year, at least a month earlier than normal. Pruning takes me about 40 hours. Nice to have that out of the way with plenty of time to focus on the other tasks.
Every time I prune I catch myself asking "Who was the moron who pruned these things last year?!"
I pruned the Cabernet Franc to the traditional 2-bud spurs, but this time I left 6 buds on the Chardonnay spurs. The Chardonnay are more prone to winterkill/die back. I'm even thinking of going to an entirely different method of vine training on the Chard for the future, to keep the canes closer to the main trunk.
Another very mild winter, and the buds are already pushing hard. We'll have budbreak within the week. Too bad, because we're bound to get a few stiff frosts still. Will probably need those remarkable redundancies that are built into grape buds, with secondary and even tertiary nodes in case the primaries are irreparably damaged.
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