We are nearing the end of a lazy winter. I didn’t do any work with my vines during the colder than normal December, January and February. March has turned out to finally warm up and I decided that I had better prune the vines.
The Dornfelder vines are providing a roof over a patio. Dornfelder vines were used for the patio covering because we observed Dornfelder covering a side of a building at Fulkerson Winery along Seneca Lake in New York. However if I were to redo the roof idea I would us Niagara vines instead. Niagara grows quickly and has larger leaves. It would provide more shade in a shorter period of time. However it is nice to sit on the patio and watch verasion with the Dornfelder grapes.
Although this winter was consistently colder than average for three months, I pruned less of the Dornfelder than last year. There is now more of an infrastructure of vines covering the roof area of the patio.
We have four Niagara vines transplanted from Kathy’s homestead. I didn’t spare those vines as I hacked away merrily. I did experience cutting off some older vines and let younger vines take their place.
With only six vines, I had the luxury to wait till the third week of March to prune the vines. I can imagine with acres of vines, the need to spend every possible day during January and February pruning.
Cheers.
Terry
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