2-Bud Pruning

Despite the chilly, frost-bitten mornings of winter, the team at Lokkelebery are out in force to undertake the all important winter pruning. Pruning is a vital job in the vineyard and can dictate the future vitality of a vine with every cut we make. It is essential to understand the inner workings of the vine before picking up those secateurs.

This year we are pruning the vines to ‘2 buds’ meaning that only 2 buds will be left on each vine. This may seem an extreme method: it means cutting away almost all the growth the vine has made in its lifetime at Lokkelebery, leaving only a short stump with 2 tiny buds on it. However, this is vitally important for the longevity of the vine. It is easy as a vine grower to become greedy. The promise of wine just a year or two away, could be brought closer by training the vines a year early. Had this been the case, we might have pruned the vines higher up the stronger cane, and maybe even had a small harvest this year.

However, this would be a greedy mistake indeed, for it would mean pushing very young vines with shallow roots to produce fruit. Over time the vines would likely consistently underperform and eventually fizzle out at a younger age than would be expected for new vines. So, at Lokkelebery we are taking the route of the tortoise, taking our time but for the benefit of the long-term. By cutting the vines back this year and excluding the possibility of a harvest, we are allowing the vines to concentrate purely on pushing down their roots. The vines already had a dry start, having been planted before the drought of 2022, so it is more important than ever that they settle their roots properly and have a strong foundation for future. If we are lucky, we may then expect our first small harvest in 2024, but again we are not forcing this as we do not want to pressure the vines at a young age. In the vineyard game, patience is certainly a virtue!

Gentle Pruning

Pruning presents its own unique challenge: we are deciding the future of the vine. Make the wrong choice and this could be detrimental to the vines future. Make the right choice and we have secured a long and healthy future for the vine and its fruit.

Gentle pruning is at the heart of this process and helps us decide where to make our cuts. When we prune, we seek to keep the shoot which avoids any wounds which are on the vine. This could be the wound from the nursery where the end of the pinot noir clone (for example) was grafted onto its rootstock. These wounds are usually identifiable by a flat surface on the plant where they have been cut.

The reason for avoiding these vines was succinctly described to us by Joel Jorgensen of Vinescapes. He explained, the vine is like a pipe. Any wounds in the vine act as dinks or blockages in the pipe, which reduce the flow of sap through the plant. Any reduction in this flow means it is harder for nutrients to reach all areas of the plant, which can lead to lower productivity, and the early dormancy of the plant, that is to say it stops producing decent fruit at a younger age than normal.

By leaving our 2-bud shoot on the opposite side of the vine to these wounds, we can leave a clear sap flow channel up the side of the vine to our future trunk, which will be formed of one of the 2 buds. The wounds will, in time, be pushed to one side and be excluded from the trunk. It is not always possible to choose a shoot which is away from these wounds, after all nature will take its own course, so pruning involves a great deal of compromise too.

Finally, when we make our cuts, it is essential to leave dieback. When the vine is cut, it will, in a sense, recoil by dying off from the cut. If this cut is made too close to the main vine body or trunk, this recoil will die back into the vine itself, not only bringing a wound into the channel of sap flow but also bringing disease with it, namely Trunk Disease.

A common site in older vineyards is a gnarled knot on top of the trunk. This is from years of old-style pruning where neatness and clean pruning was the go-to. Nowadays, however, with the sudden death of many older vines from Trunk Disease, experts are finding that harsh pruning and cutting flush to the vine has led to vines being riddled with ‘desiccation cones’ (where the cut has died back into the trunk) which severely limits sap flow, and is a key factor behind Trunk Disease. The aim for vineyards today is to create a ‘Y’ shaped vine rather than a knot, where the sap can flow easily to the fruiting canes, and therefore the fruit, each year.

At Lokkelebery our motto when pruning is, ‘if you are unsure, leave more’; we are always cautious to leave a little more on the vine to allow for die back. We are not interested in having neat, flush cut vines, we are interested in slightly spiky but healthy ones!

Next year we will operate a different pruning system, where we will work on creating our first ever fruiting canes, but in the meantime it will take us a few more weeks to complete this years pruning. We are very grateful to our core group of volunteers who have been trained specially for this task, having attended many sessions with us last season. Once the pruning season is complete, we will open the gates once more to more volunteers interested in being involved as we have had many requests which is absolutely wonderful! There will be more to get involved with from late Spring this year.

For now, it is back to the secateurs and thick woolen socks.

Photo credits: Lokkelebery Vineyard & Simon Frost