Mechanizing Pruning in Viticulture
From Triple Performance
The mechanization of pruning can provide a real economic gain to winegrowers by reducing the manual labor time required for pruning vines. Several solutions exist with different implications in terms of investment, change of practice, and impact on the grape.
The mechanization of pruning concerns all operations that reduce time and investment at pruning time and afterwards with cane pulling.
- The pre-pruning is the first step in mechanizing pruning because it greatly simplifies the pruners' work and can save up to 80% of labor time.
- Precision short pruning and mechanical cane pulling (on Guyot) are other mechanization approaches allowing to go further in economic optimization.
There are other training systems that allow for greater savings but alter the plant's functioning more significantly with much higher bud loads:
| Average of all grape varieties and vintages | Manual pruning | Hedge pruning | Minimal pruning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buds left at pruning per vine | 20 to 25 | 70 to 150 | 300 to 600 |
| Number of shoots per vine | 22.5 | 39 | 87 |
| Budburst rate in % | 90 to 112.5 | 26 to 55 | 12 to 35 |
| Internode length in cm | 5.8 | 4.9 | 3.7 |
| Number of clusters per vine | 31.3 | 72.6 | 129.7 |
| Cluster weight in g | 158 | 124 | 89 |
| Yield in T/ha | 11.3 | 18.1 | 20.3 |
Sources
- TechniLoire, Mechanization of pruning in the vineyard
- Institut Français de la Vine and Wine Occitanie, PRECISION SHORT PRUNING, HEDGE PRUNING AND MINIMAL PRUNING
