To a T

This weekend it was time to prune my six vines at the Hilton Estate (also known as my sister’s backyard).  As explained in my previous post, the goal is to establish a permanent “T” shape within each vine.  With my vertical trunk established last season, this season was all about developing the horizontal arms.  Each vine had about five or six canes forming the shape of a fan, so my job while pruning was to choose the two on each vine that seemed the thickest and in the best position.  The rest of the canes, or about two-thirds of each vine, I removed.



After



Before



I have to say I’m quite happy with how the row turned out.  The pruning took me about an hour, or 10 minutes per vine.  Not a big deal on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  Of course, an average acre of vineyard has about 800 vines, so if I’m ever to realize my dream of owning a 30 acre vineyard, that equates to about 167 straight days of pruning. 

I know what you’re thinking – “Joel, where did you get those sick math skills?”  Well, I was born that way.  And if I can interest you in a little pruning in my vineyard, I might even be willing to tutor your children.