Bud burst occurred 10 days earlier than last year due to an increase in temperature. This forced us to tie down the canes earlier than we would have preferred to minimise the damage we cause to the buds when tying them down.
19/04/24 - Tying Down Finished:
Tying down the vines took from the 9 th to 19 th April. It is always a gradual process but, even more so, once the buds have burst due to their sensitivity in the early stages as they tend to fall off when knocked even lightly by hands or the wirework.
The bowed canes in the photo above (on the right-hand side in the centre near the top of the row) is an attempt at a Pendelbogen system of tying down which should reduce the apical dominance of the buds at the ends of the tips of the canes, allowing for a more even growth along the cane of the vine. The Scott Henry system doesn't really allow much room for that to be used but we can occasionally fit it in.
The lower canes on the wirework will be turned downwards once their growth has reached a point where it can be tucked into the lower foliage wires, the upper canes will be grown upwards, this gives a very large fruiting area and a good breathable canopy, the canopy will be managed entirely by manual work
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