ZABIBU

With the crop made into wine we now go back to the vineyard for some management work. We have to force the  vines into winter for the second time in a year. We prune the vines at the end of March (now) as we soon expect our heavy and long rainy season, and we then prune them again in October with fruit production in mind. We do not let the vines fruit twice a year however. 

Emmanuel leaves www.wildlifedirect.org this morning to lend us a hand.

Here he is giving his hands a few new blisters pruning the Pinot Noir. The canes are cut back to  two four budded spurs at  this time. When we prune for fruit we woudl leave 2 seven or 8 budded canes instead.

Bare vines 

Another reason for this second pruning is that it helps us with disease control. We can keep the vines relatively free of Mildew if we cut them back and continue with some sort of spray routine.

We are close to the equator here and so we do not have a cold winter which would be more normal for vines elsewhere. Here if we were to leave them to be they would continue to grow in any old manner and this makes the pruning for fruit production quite difficult. When we have left this to happen in the past we come to prune and find that there is little or no wood and the buds are not set.

To force a winter we use Dormex .

This is carefully painted on to the buds on the pruned vines. It is quite toxic and so Muia is well protected with thick rubber gloves and a face mask.

The Dormex works much better if it is applied with white oil as it seems to have a longer wintering effect and is not so readily washed off by short rain showers that we sometimes experience at this time of year. We also use a food coloring in it to make it easier to see the buds that have been painted. With Dormex applied it will be a good two weeks before the buds are swollen and ready to burst and then it it spring time.