Pruning.
Started pruning back in January. Because I don't have every waking hour to spend on this business, however, it has taken me until the first week in March to finish. It also took me longer than it should have because I had to begin correcting the incorrect pruning I've been practicing the last two years. It'll probably take me another two years to get it right.
Our local section of the Florida Grape Grower's Association had a presentation by Louis Royes about the correct way to prune muscadines and I finally got the concept right, I hope!
Pruning means having to remove the clippings, too. Such a pain.
Our farm, Skyshadow Vineyard, has about 358 vines at present. I found that it takes about ten minutes to prune each vine. So, that's 3,580 minutes or about 60 hours of pruning. When I prune, I find it is so tedious that I have to do something else after about three hours so if I did three hours every day that I pruned, it took me 20 days! Like I said, that 20 days was spread over 2.5 months from January to mid March.
Irrigation
I have low volume emitters that place two small circles of spray around the base of each vine. Sunday was the first day I irrigated this year. By Tuesday the buds were breaking and tiny green leaves were pushing out. It always amazes me that they continue to survive despite my inadvertent attempts to kill them.
Fertilization
Sunday was also the first day I fertilized this year. Probably should have done it on the first of March but couldn't get to it. The plan is to do it again on May 1st or so and then again after harvest, probably late September or early October. I put a full 2 cups, a little less than two pounds I think, on each vine in a band about eight inches wide between 10 to 18 inches out from the base. I use 10-10-10 with trace elements. Haven't killed them, yet.
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