Dick Heckman wrote:

> I have some vines that were hit hard by last
> year's Easter frost. I had
> to take many back to the ground. So I now have
> a mix of 2 and 3 year
> old vines. Since I'll nip off almost all of the
> clusters, would it be better to allow some more
> buds than the average recommended buds per vine
> to get a few more leaves out for more nutrients
> for the vine or go
> with the data for a producing vine? This
> applies mostly to the 3 yr
> vines. I'm not going to let them go wild but
> I'd like to build them up as much as possible.
>
> Dick

I don't know your particulars such as variety etc
but I also lost about 80% of my fruiting buds
last year. I was in the process of converting
from the lyre to a simple VSP trellising so
everything that produced shoots I left and let it
grow to produce carbs for the roots. I did not
loose any trunks and I had a lot of shoots grow
from old wood last year but of course they were
not fruitful.

This year I coverted from cordon - spur pruning to
cane pruning. Cane pruning is suppose to offer
some advantages such as bigger clusters and less
old wood to harbor overwintering disease. Time
will tell.

Where do you live and what are you growing?