harvest reports
Canopy Management
To My Friends:
Canopy Management (CM) is a collection of activities that help direct flavor development and reduce the risk of disease and pest damage. These activities include shoot removal, shoot positioning, hedging and leaf removal. CM is critical to our Farming for FlavorsTM program.
Shoot Removal (April-May) - is the elimination of extra or weak shoots that can clog up a grapevine's canopy. We leave only one shoot per bud position. Shoot removal is the single most important and complicated technique in CM.
Leaf Removal (June-July) - with the popularity of the vertical trellis system, one of the biggest repercussions has been serious sunburn and heat damage. This problem was further exacerbated by leaf removal. Now, we are very careful where and how many leaves we remove. This year we are carefully and conservatively removing leaves from the cooler, easterly (morning) facing side of the grapevine, while leaving all the leaves intact on the warmer westerly (afternoon) side. It takes about four to six leaves to ripen one grape cluster. We judiciously remove leaves by hand.
Shoot Positioning (June) - most CM systems have wires that hold the grapevine shoots in place so all the leaves are exposed to the sun. Shoot positioning is the activity of tucking the shoots under the canopy wires and spreading them out so all of the leaves are exposed to sun. When most leaves receive good sunlight, a vine is operating and ripening grapes at its full capacity. Shaded leaves are actually an energy sink.
Hedging (July) - call it a vine haircut. We trim off the shoot tips of a grapevine about two to three feet above the top wire. When the growing shoot tips are cut, it sends a signal to the grapevine to change its focus from growth to reproduction, i.e., grape ripening.
When these techniques are performed in a timely and coordinated fashion, we get fuller flavored grapes and higher quality wines. There is also less disease and pest pressure, which means significantly less chemical spraying.
Benziger Family Vineyards
Sonoma Mountain, July 23, 2002