Pruning Strategies

Snow cover and bright blue skies have made a wonderful start to the beginning of pruning season. Just like the good old days when we had real winters.

I’ve been skipping around doing some trial pruning in various blocks. It’s the best way to get a good feel for the state of the vines and therefor the most appropriate approach to pruning strategies. This year the vines are small, and in some cases weak. We’ll need to cut back aggressively. 2025 will be a restorative year. The vines need a break after a couple of drought years and the invasion of the Spotted Lanternfly.

Vines do most of their growing in June and July, but the summers of 2023 and 2024 were uncommonly dry. Younger vines and vines on shallow, rocky soils show signs of stress. Last year’s spike in the sap sucking Spotted Lanternfly taxed the vines at the end of the season.  If we cut them back hard this winter there will be less shoots emerging in the spring. And also fewer clusters. The idea is that the vines can then concentrate more on growing leaves rather than ripening a lot of grapes.

Of course we have no idea what the summer of 2025 will bring. If it is a wet summer the vines could grow too much. Without a substantial crop to compete and slow down vigor the vines could go into a hyper vegetative cycle.

For every solution there could be a problem. The farmer constantly gambles.

Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Hardscrabble Journal: January 15, 2025