Suckering the Vines

15 May Suckering the Vines

Now that the buds have progressed into shoots, it’s time to take care of the unwanted shoots on the trunk – otherwise known as “suckers”.  The verb tense of removing these “suckers” is called suckering.

The before shot shows the vine on the left with a number of new shoots (green) extending from the trunk.  The problem is, we really don’t need any of these shoots and they may steal some energy from the rest of the fruit that we need to mature.  Thus, we need to remove them.

The second shot demonstrates the easy removal of these shoot at this point in the season.  If we let the shoots go much further, we would run the risk of the shoots lignifying and we would be unable to remove them with our fingers.

Lastly, an after shot of the vine once we remove all the suckers.