More vigour than ever on my vines

June is typical for flowering here in California. Then, ideally, you have at least 90 days to harvest.

How tall are we talking here? These are cane pruned? You may want to prune top and sides to give a rectangular look to your vines, as this allows better penetration of sunlight and air, to keep leaves dry and protected from mold and mildew.

How old are vines?

Don't feed. Don't water, unless they become stressed.

You can't control the rains and therefore vigor control is very difficult. You could experiment by trying to grow some on a high wire. downward growing shoots are less vigorous.

You will get a LOT more fedback by going to

Winepress.us and joining (its free)

Paul

Hi Billy and Paul, Yes,these vines are cane pruned,and the top wire (already passed) is 5 ft 6in.I regularly tie all the vertical shoots into the trellis,and do not usually have to side prune.The vines are from cuttings and about 6 years old.I clearly cut off the tops of the verticals,but as late as possible,since this encourages side shoots,which can themselves inhibit penetration of the wettable sulphur spray I use regularly to prevent powdery mildew.Paul suggests that it is difficult to control vigour,and possibly have a downward growing vine arrangement,but I am not sure what this involves. Since the vines are very healthy,I refrain from using fertiliser very much.I have been putting on wood ash (potash) in the winter to encourage fruiting,and have always assumed that this does not encourage vigour.Perhaps I will just leave the vines alone for a couple of years. One other question.I always tie in the vertical shoots to keep them separated as much as possible,but find this very time consuming.I usually tie to every other wire,since the string does not firmly grip the wire and slides about somewhat.There is also considerable work cutting off the string at pruning time.Some of my books suggest twist ties,which are plastic covered wire,but I have always resisted this approach,since they must be even more difficult to remove. Michael

Mussolini.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUghttp://radwisdom.com/essays/this-is-your-brain/-

I use the plastic coated twist ties but they will still slip around. I, and other growers in my area also use "C" clips. An example is here:

I am assuming you have your catch wires on both sides of the posts and not a single wire. If so, then you just pull both wires together and put a clip on them. You can bracket about a half dozen shoots at a time and just put a clip on each end. If you need to add a shoot or rearrange, just unclip, reposition and put the clip back on.

These vines are vinifera, labrusca, or hybrids? In Italy they might leave the leaves on to protect against sunburn, but at your latitude, everyone else opens up their vines by cutting the tops and sides, to let more air and sunlight in, to reduce shading on the soil, and neighboring vines, to reduce the new growth where mold is most susceptible to maintain the shape of the vine as the canes get longer and may possibly drop. This clipping ( or topping ) to remove the growing tips of branches may need to be done several times.

Woodash (K) is good for the health of the vine. PO4-- is usually used to encourage flowering, but in grapes, I would think that the flowering depends on the number of buds left on the canes. Over crop one year, and get an under crop the next.

Growth would come from a nitrogen source, like manure.

Remind me. Are these vines for fresh eating or wine making?