Well, we’ve gone through the vineyard several times now to do a little ‘housekeeping’. As the canes have gotten longer, we have coaxed them under the wires so they are reaching skyward in what we call ‘vertical shoot positioning’ (VSP). Because we are growing Cabs in a relatively cooler area, we need to urge the grapes to ripen by allowing more warmth, sunlight and air around the clusters.
We’ve also gone through and removed all of the suckers on the lower part of the vines that will steal energy away from our main crop.
Because our vines run east/west, we have a northern exposed side and a southern exposed side. We have pulled all of the leaves on the north facing side to allow warmth and light in. We leave all of the leaves on the south facing side to protect against direct sunlight.
