Mike,

One more thought. When grapes grow, they usually shoot laterals close
to the fruiting area after bloom to aid in ripining. Those are the
laterals that you should keep. Hedge the vine about 4 feet from the
base of the shoot and hedge off any laterals that form from those
hedges. If the laterals formed by the vine close to the fruiting area
get to long, hedge them but dont cut them off totally. Maybe leave 2
feet on each lateral , there should be 2, and hedge off all other
laterals formed because of the hedging below( I'm assuning high
cordon).
In a well drained soil you would have these problems but it is what
it is and we have to deal with what we're dealt.

Bob

On Jun 23, 8:03 pm, Mike McGeough > wrote:
> wrote:
> > I agree with evrything Lon said. Laterals are grown by the vine to
> > help it ripen the grapes. Pruning them off is not the right thing.
>
> Bob:
>
> I've got to disagree here. My experience in the rainy Northeast US is
> that leaving the laterals on my FA hybrids, on my high-vigor site is a
> recipe for dense, impenetrable growth , fungus problems, and undrerripe
> fruit. My site gets 55 to 60 inches of rain, has some tall surrounding
> trees, and is crossed by several springs & streams. Humidity is high
> from now til the Fall, and then we get hurricanes. If I didn't pinch the
> laterals, basal leaf strip, AND hedge the 6' canes as they reach the
> ground, I'd get a poor crop this year and a really sparse one next year.
>
> Wanna know how I know this? Well, let's just say I too read Dr Smart's
> "Sunlight into Wine". What works in Australia & New Zealand Emphatically
> doesn't work around here. It took a few years to experiment with and
> recover from his advice.
>
> I do agree that basal leaf pulling seems to have little effect on taste,
> but we need to do it to air out the canopy. Besides, those leaves
> don't feed the berries anyway.
>
> To Paul:
>
> It's my understanding that leaving the laterals results in a lot of
> vegetative growth, and a higher percentage of very young leaves, in
> almost a geometric progression. The problem is that the new leaves don't
> become net exporters of carbohydrates until about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks of
> age. If there are a lot of laterals, they seem to shade out the
> middle-aged, carb exporting leaves deeper in the canopy, and the fruit
> has delayed or incomplete ripening. Maybe it would be different in a
> sunnier, drier climate.This is another counter-intuitive lesson that I
> learned the hard way. I now remove all laterals and non-fruiting canes.
>
> To Michael:
>
> My main method of dealing with my enthusiastically growing vines is to
> train them in the Sylvoz or High Curtain system, with a single wire at
> about 6' and two movable catch wires. Cordons run left & right on the
> wire, and canes are swept under the catch wires, which are gradually
> lowered until the canes hang down. This really devigorates most
> varieties and keeps the fruit at an easy picking height, and well above
> soil splashed fungi & spores, something you probably need to consider too.
> It also makes it easier to cover the rows with bird netting.
> When the canes make it to the ground, they automatically get hedged when
> I mow the grassy aisles.
>
> I hope you can find some of these ideas useful
>
> Great discussion, guys.
>
> Mike
>
> Mike MTM, Cokesbury, NJ, USA
>
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