Vines in Recovery and Rehabilitation

June 17, 2020: A sequence of photos from Santa Ana Vineyard north of Bernalillo. Starting from the top...the photo was taken looking north between two rows of Pinot Meunier. Notice the vigorous and crowded vegetative shoot growth? In the next photo one can see a single vine as we move closer towards the canopy. The third photo reveals the reason why there is so much vegetative growth...and finally, the fourth photo is a close-up within the a single vine's canopy. Notice the dead spur that was left at pruning? I was intended to give rise to two shoots, one from each of the "count buds" that the pruners left for this season. But, as we know...after those shoots budded out and began to grow, a late frost occurred, in mid-April that killed them. All that remains of them is the dead spur...but at the base of the spur, notice that there is about 4 non-count buds that have burst and are giving rise to shoots. One of these shoots appears to bearing fruit. So...the vines will have a crop after all. But it will likely be smaller and ripen later relative to a 'normal' crop that would have been borne on the primary shoots. 

Looking west, between two rows of Pinot Meunier, on June 17, 2020, following a late freeze that killed nearly all new growth in mid-April. The vines appear very vigorous due to a proliferation of secondary and latent buds that are growing after the primary ones were killed. 

Closer in to the canopy of a single vine of Pinot Meunier. Very vigorous, it is  likely that sunlight does not penetrate uniformly and not many fruit clusters are visible from this vantage point. 

Pushing shoots aside and looking within the canopy of the previous photo, notice all the secondary shoots arising from a common point near the base of the dead spur? 

Shoot congestion explained....notice the remnants of the dead bud in the foreground on the spur and the  numerous secondary shoots growing from the base of the spur in the background? These secondary and in some cases, tertiary shoots are growing in response to the death of the primary shoots. Some of these shoots have leaves...but typically, not the 12-15 full size, mature leaves required to fully ripen a fruit cluster.