Dick Heckman wrote:

> I'm in Huntsville, AL, 30 miles from the
> Tennessee line and on a ridgetop.

Are you at an elevation that usually has mid April
freeze problems? If so, you may want to consider
other varieties. You may want to talk to your AG
person and see what they recommend. I know there
are several cold hardy varieties that have been
developed recently such as Frontenac.

Cabernet Franc also appears to be sort of cold
tolerant and is even grown in New York State.
When there are serious freeze problems here in
Central Maryland it is usually one of the
varieties that comes through in good shape.

>
> I've got some 3 yr old Chancellor that survived.
> Some of the Chancellor was hit bad and I
> replaced it with Noiret which is now in it's
> second

> year. All existing Noiret was knocked back to
> the ground and so all
> Noiret is 2 yrs. Some of my Cynthiana had split
> trunks and have been cut to the ground and
> brought back up last year so they are 2 yr also
> but I have some 3 yr Cynthiana as well. My
> Chambourcin was hit the worst and none have
> filled out cordons and several died completely.
> I'll see what they do this year but I may swap
> them for something else. All vines were
> originally planted in 2006 so this is their 3rd
> yr.
>
> All vines have been trained to a high
> cordon/spur system as that was recommended by
> Tennessee ag station folks but I've been told
> that Noiret likes longer spurs and I would think
> that both Cynthiana and Chancellor would be the
> same so I may go with a modified cordon/cane
> high cordon type system.
>
> The big question is with the older Cynthiana and
> Chancellor. Should I cut the Chancellor back to
> the 20 or 30 buds and the Cynthiana to 50 or 60
> buds that balanced pruning would call for or
> just trim prudently set the vine up for future
> years and then clip clusters so that the vigor
> goes to the vine.

Do you have spurs that are from last years growth?
or are you talking about spurs that had buds that
froze last year?

>
> I've done a basic pruning but there are still
> plenty of buds, particularly on the Cynthiana.
>
> Dick

I think two or three years is a little soon to be
expecting fruit or much fruit. I am not familiar
with Cynthiana so maybe someone else could
advise.

On my vines, I typically prune back to two buds
above the graft union after the first year and
wait until the third year to put two canes on the
cordon wire. When I do this on the third year, I
keep the cordons short - about 18 inches and
build out each year from there.

It sounds like you have self rooted vines and not
growing on root stock. Maybe if you could find
some grafted vines they might do better? I am
only guessing here. Maybe others on this
newsgroup or your AG person can give you more
advice.

>
>
> Paul E. Lehmann wrote:
>
>>
>> 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?