May 2025 – Around the Vineyard
After the excitement of Meltham VE day it’s back to work in the vineyard. The main current activity is tying down the fruiting canes to the bottom wire. These canes were selected during the winter pruning when the rest of last year’s growth was removed. The fruiting shoots will then grow vertically from the tied down canes and be attached to the higher wires. We leave tying down this late since buds on vertical canes are less susceptible to frost damage than when tied down
horizontally. The tied down vines are in the double guyot shape that represents the optimum for grape production. Sadly some young vines don’t survive, particularly the wet conditions of last summer and winter. We have just planted 50 Solaris replacements. Otherwise routine tasks like cutting the grass strips between the rows of vines need to be undertaken weekly. Tom loves the red ride on mower that he won in a video competition last year.
