Tending the vines

Now that less frigid, though damper, weather has returned, the people who tend the vines out behind La Renaudière are back at work. This is the time of year when they prune back last year's growth to prepare the vines for the new growing season.

Practicians of the "burn the clippings" school
of vine-tending doing their thing

Some of the vine-tenders burn their clippings as they go. They use cut off oil drums mounted on wheels — sort of like oversized wheelbarrows — where they build a little fire and throw in the branches they trim off.

The handiwork of a "stack now, chip or bundle later" practitioner

Others just stack the clippings neatly in the rows as they go. They put them in every other row. Later, they will gather up the clippings and tie them up into bundles, or they will send through a chipper to grind them up and deposit the resulting sawdust back onto the ground (I think — maybe they haul it out).

Callie out by the vine-tenders shed in the Renaudie vineyards
02 January 2008

Somebody told me that it is better to burn the clippings because leaving them on the ground can encourage the growth of harmful molds, mildew, and fungus. I don't know why some people do burning and others don't. Could it have to do with the variety of grape being grown on a given parcel of land?