Started work on the vineyard on the 30th May, it had been just over 3 weeks since my last visit, but wow, what a change. There was a great deal of growth on the vines, with shoots all over the place, and the vineyard looked generally very untidy and in desperate need of tending.
The growth on the vines in the last 3 weeks had been tremendous. After spending about 10 hours working in the vineyard to try and tidy it up, with plenty more work required, my first impressions on the different grapes are as follows;
1. Montepulciano
The least vigorous of all the vines, the growth was short (shoots up to 24 inches), stocky, but very dense and healthy. The grapes are showing a very good set of flowers, with flower clusters forming on each of the 4 buds. I think next season would be wiser to limit each arm to a maximum of 4 spurs, 4 buds each. The weight of some of the shoots had shifted the spurs so they were pointing down, and this took some effort to sort out, with some small shoot breakage, although it was time consuming it wasn't really a problem. Spent quite some time thinning out the canopy. These vines look good.
2. Sangiovese
Longer shoot growth than the Montepulciano, also very healthy looking. Shoots much longer, (2 - 3ft) but the growth not dense, showing a good amount of flowers, but nowhere near as much as the Montepulciano. These were quite easy to tie up and sort out, it was noticeable the great variation between different vines of the different quantity of flowers. The heaalthier looking vines in the bottom half of the vineyard had considerably less flowers that the other vines. LLots of big strong shoots with no flowers on at all, very strange, it is possible more buds will come, but surely not. The spurs seem to have shooted from the 3 & 4th bud only, and again on the stronger vines, the flower clusters only seem to be on shoots from the 4tf bud.
This maybe suggests that these vines would be better cane pruned.
3. Pecorino Row 3
These vines have demonstrated very vigorous growth, with very dense amount of very long shoots (2 -3 ft+). In the mid section of the row this proved to be a real problem, as the weight of the growth had pulled down the spurs into a tangled mess. This was very time consuming to sort out, and I had a great deal of breakage and loss of shoots on some of the vines. This row had least flowers of all the rows, and was the hardest to sort out. Clearly this should have been tackled around 10 days previously.
The vines in the bottom half of the vineyard had a small amount of flowers, with one or 2 vines having a considerable amount. Vines in the top half had very few, and on most of these vines the priority was to get the vine properly set up with to increase the chances of fruit next year as the trunk and cordons are still very immature.
4. Pecorino Row 4
These vines have demonstrated very vigorous growth, with very dense amount of long shoots. However, as the canes were tied, the shoots have grown fairly uniformly across the canapy. The 2 vines at the foot of the hill still look very sick, although they have some flowers. No idea what the problem is with these. Overall though, this row looks very healthy and has plentiful flowers, probably similar in number to the Montepulciano. This row was the easiest to sort out. These vines look good.
CONCLUSIONS ?
Montepulciano and Pecorino Row 4 look like the best vines.
Sangiovese would be better cane pruned (unless there is a late bud forming)
Tying up should have started a week to 10 days earlier
Cane Pruning looks better for the Pecorino, more flowers and easier to manage
There has been some sloppy pruning, too many buds left and too many pointing in the wrong direction
Next Steps
Need to finish tying up, and then some shoot thinning required in the denser canopies.
