Pruning has finished. And not before time. As I noted earlier in these growing notes, we always plan for a slow start; gear up systems, ease the body into the physical work, etc. We pick up speed through the main part of pruning, but try as we may the end always seems to drag out for one reason or another. A sick child, a niggling injury, maybe it's just that the end is in sight and we have time to spare. A variation on the Peters Principle: The amount of work always expands to fill the time available.
Anyway we are finished. The sap is starting to run in the vines, buds are swelling.
All the training wires have been lowered. It's a fair amount of walking in a couple of days, taking the wires off their bent-staple hooks and lowering them to the ground. I worked out it's about 14 kms of walking. The lifting and stretching to unhook the wires makes it a really good workout.
I spent most of this weekend on the tractor spraying Round-up along the vine lines. Weed control is important to preserve the nutrients and water.
No matter how thorough the pruning, there are always a few canes that have been missed; a downward growing cane, a cane that was hidden in some pruning caught on the training wires, a pruning decision that was left to be decided once the whole vine had been pruned (only to be forgotten), and then there is those that you just second guess. You can always find another bud to remove!
All these things distract me as I walk up and down putting down the wires. Distract me as I drive up and down spraying. I stop the tractor and get down to tidy up the errant vine, because it is a fools belief that "I'll come back later." Do it now is the only way.
Roll on bud burst.