The Vineyard in August
Scott Henry trellis system
1. Check bud spacing.
The Scott Henry trellis system is ideal if your vines are vigorous due to spacing or the composition of your soil.
I have found that this trellis system gives a good balance between canopy and fruit set.
I mistakenly read too many notes from the USA when I planted my vines and spaced them at 1.8 centres with 3 metres between rows.
Whilst this allows excellent manouverability for mowing and other operations, cool climate viticulturalists are now advising
a spacing of 1.2 metres between vines in each row.
In the first 2 vintages I experienced significant problems with a vigorous canopy.
It is for that reason that I have opted for a Scott Henry trellis system to control the vigour of my vines.
The system balances vigour by allowing a proportionately greater fruit set whilst still allowing maximum light
for the vines to develop premium quality fruit.
I allow 6 buds for each of 4 arms plus up to 4 spurs for next year's replacement canes.
This potentially allows for about 40-50 bunches of fruit ( about 3 -4kg of fruit per vine).
Allowing any more than this endangers overcropping, which grape varieties such as Pinot Noir are prone to.
This causes great variation in the crop from year to year as the potential energy of the vine does not vary a great deal.
The developing buds for the next year's crop do not get the sugars needed to develop properly leading to a poorer crop in the next year.
For premium fruit quality you can thin this yield to potentially about 2-3 kg per vine,
but I have found that quality is excellent if kept to the bud count I have outlined.