REGENERATIVE PRUNING & REPLANTING A SMALL ORGANIC VINEYARD WITH OWN ROOTED CUTTINGS

Vineyard project: purchased 5 years ago in 2016. The vines had been allowed to grow wildly, no irrigation, no spraying, no pruning for several years. Trunks reached the top wire. We embarked on a project to save the existing Chardonnay vines, deciding to prune double Guyot, as this is suitable for an extreme cold region and also helps manage disease. Vines are own rooted, the area does not suffer from substantial Phylloxera, and in extreme cold winter periods (-35 - -40C) following sunny weather, the vines can be prone to winter kill.

Due to the canopy being left overgrown, powdery mildew had become endemic. We are in the Similkameen Valley, BC, called the ‘organic farming capital of Canada’. Most orchards and vineyards use Kumulus to control powdery mildew. It is an organic approved sulphur spray, mixed with water, and generally applied every 7-10 days during high pressure temps (20’s-low 30’s C). We purchased a tower sprayer, which cost ~$14,000 (vineyard equipment can’t be shared between organic/non-organic farms for certification reasons).

Year 1: heavy lop on vine trunks to the bottom wire where possible, we weren’t sure vines would live, but they did. Many vines had grown so high that this wasn’t possible, so the aim was to get them lower each year over three years. Where they were sawn off, buds started to form on the trunk. Some vines had only one ‘arm’ for the first year or two.

Year 2: vine canopy becomes more even. Managing the canopy improved our ability to control powdery mildew, along with regular sulphur application. Keeping the grass/weeds down becomes a major issue, as it is a vector for mildew. Herbicides are not an option, which leaves mowing/trimming under vines, or cultivation (a cultivator attachment for our Kubota tractor was quoted at ~$12,000).

Year 3-4: we decide to pull out half of our vines, and replant to Chardonnay. Our existing Chardonnay has been sold for sparkling wine; a huge labour benefit is that it doesn’t require bird netting as it is too acidic to be tempting, harvested at ~19 Brix. Smaller lots of organic Chardonnay are highly desirable to local winemakers, and sell for $2800-3500 per ton. The pulled vines are hybrids (Marechal Foch), not in demand, and challenging to maintain due to the prolific suckers they produce along with huge, vigorous canopies. Below is a picture of the pulled 13 year old Marechal. Ashes are used in the garden.

At this point, we replaced the irrigation, which was set up with spinners, as it was contributing to disease pressure (spinners sit below the hose and spin under pressure, creating a circular fine arc of water about 6-8 feet wide). The new hoses contain emitters spaced 12” apart, which dose the vines and not the center of the row. It snaps on to the bottom wire below the cordon wire. This also helps control the vigour of the grasses under the trellis.

Below is a Chardonnay vine pruned after five years. You can see where the original overgrown trunk comes out at center top.

We’ve been replanting using cuttings from our existing Chardonnay block. Purchasing cuttings is about $4-5/cutting to have grown out at a nursery, with ~75% survival rate.

Instead, we take cuttings when doing late Winter (Feb) pruning. 1,500 per year for the past two years. They spend late Winter through Spring in our greenhouse before planting out.

Vine cuttings are trimmed to 3-4 buds, bundled, and soaked in willow water. Organic willow stems have been boiled and steeped to extract a natural rooting compound.

After soaking 24 hours, the cuttings are ‘stuck’ into greenhouse planters filled with organic starting mix. They are misted daily as they have no roots yet to absorb water.

After 2-3 weeks, the buds start to swell. At 4 weeks, the first bud break begins. Below the soil, roots are forming at bud points.

Here are the first leaves opening, 6 weeks after being stuck. The vines will wait in the greenhouse until after risk of frost ends in our zone 5 region (late-April). Then they will be planted out to the vineyard.

Below are last year’s planted cuttings. We had 90% survival rate over the winter. The vines have been protected with milk crates. These are an inexpensive way to shield the new vines from hungry creatures (deer), wind, or errant mowing/trimming hazards. The crates are industry misprints, so they haven’t gone to waste.

These 2nd year vines have just been trimmed down to a couple buds, to concentrate their new growth.

This year’s batch of plantings will complete our new 2 acre block of own-rooted Chardonnay.

PS: In the vineyards of the Okanagan/Similkameen, you may encounter these interesting looking insect nests. They belong to the Praying Mantis, a beneficial predator.