Alone In the Vineyard

This is my favorite time of year, the vineyard is about to come alive yet,  I still have time to relax and enjoy the views from my living room. Soon things will become very active with suckering, mowing, spraying, lifting, and trimming the vines. This year's large cluster count and extreme drought will add extra work.  Typically when the new shoots are 6-12 'inches tall we remove those that do not have 2 or more grape clusters but, this year we started early in an attempt to conserve water and better concentrate the energy into the best shoots. Because we are doing it early it will require that it be done one or two more times as the new shoot will replace the one we remove.