08/04/24 - Bud Burst
Bud burst occurred 10 days earlier than last year, this was due to the increase in temperature earlier in the year. This forced us to tie down the canes earlier than we would have liked too in order to not damage the buds whilst we tie down, or rather minimise the damage we cause to the buds during the tying down.
19/04/24 - Tying Down Finished:
We started tying down the vines on the 9th of April and we finished tying down on the 19th, it is always a steady going process but even more so once the buds have burst due to the buds being very sensitive in their early stages so they have a tendency to fall off when knocked even lightly by hands or the wirework.
The bowed canes in the photo above (on the right hand side in the centre near the top of the row) is a bit of an attempt at a pendelbogen system of tying down which should reduce the apical dominance of the buds at the ends of the tips of the canes and allow for a more even growth along the cane of the vine. The Scott Henry system doesn't really allow much room for that to be used but we can occasionally fit it in.
The lower canes on the wirework will be turned downwards once their growth has reached a point that it can be tucked into the lower foliage wires, the upper canes will be grown upwards, this gives a very large fruiting area and a good breathable canopy, the canopy will be managed entirely by hand and by manual work.
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