Early Season Canopy Management

We have made it so far without any serious frost incidents in the vineyard. There has been the odd shoot damaged by frost, but the vast majority of the shoots are looking strong and healthy.

Now the buds have burst and shoots are starting to grow, we’ve tied down the canes to enable the shoots to grow vertically into the wires of the trellising. This is part of the replacement cane, or guyot, training system we use at Dunesforde. Replacement cane is used widely in the England and Wales, as well as in other cool climate grape growing regions. Vertical Shoot Positioning training systems, such as replacement cane, are well suited to cool climate conditions as they help to maximise the amount of sunlight and heat for the fruit and leaves, as well as reducing trunk diseases and the likelihood of fungal diseases.

In order to achieve the best quality fruit we spend a lot of time passing through the vineyard working on the canopy. This includes thinning out shoots that are too close together, removing shoots growing sideways (these will shade the other shoots and fruit), and rubbing off unwanted buds on the vine trunks and at the root graft. Once the shoots get about a foot long, we will lift the wires up to encourage them to keep growing vertically. Then we will pass through and take off any early signs of side shoots that can lead to excessive shading in the canopy. This will be followed by removing early fruit clusters from shoots we believe to be over-burdened. As we are looking to achieve the best quality fruit, we aim for only one or two bunches per shoot. It is this level of attention and our hands-on approach which is key to us producing high-quality grapes.