[pierredunand]

Hello there,

I’ve seen the first video of the Guyot Vine Pruner Course, where Mr Simonit is pruning two vine.
After checking the vigor of the previous shoots of the last year, he decides how much buds should be kept on the cane.
Then he removes some buds in order to get the proper number of shoots for the next year, according to the vigor of the plant.
Does the pruning of these buds have an impact on the plant ?

I don’t remember in the course seeing anything refering to the potential impact of cutting buds.

Thanks for your support.

Pierre

[TEAM VMP ACADEMY]

Hello Pierre,

There is no impact on the plant on buds cutting in fruit cane. It’s just an impact on the charge of buds you leave in the plant.

You can judge the number of buds you would like to leave in the cane wood according with the vigour of the plant.

A buds number reduction is important in case of low vigor-plants : you can have less well-developed shoots.

In case of high vigour you can use the buds cutting to have more distance between the shoots and reducing the risk of tangled shoots and leaves.

The regulation of buds/shoots must be progressive… the first in the winter pruning, the second (and third…) in springtime shoot thinning.

[pierredunand]

Woaw, that was a fast answer !
I have understood that the buds removal is linked to the vigor of the plant.
It is just that for me, if cuting a branch can create a dessication cone that can do harm to the plant if not made properly, why won’t cuting a bud do any harm to the plant ?

As I have young vines, I know that I already have to do a removal of some of the buds, just to keep two of them on each side of my vines, that will leads to the futur overal shape of the plant.

If I understand correctly, I can either remove the buds during the winter pruning, or do a shoot thinning in spring, or a little both of them?

I feel like the shoot thinning is less traumatising for the plant than pruning.

[TEAM VMP ACADEMY]

Dear Pierre,

sorry for the late of my answer, we are very busy in this moment.

About your questions :

– Cutting buds of course can have consequences, but if you do it in a fruit cane there are no problems. You have to take it off after 1 year, indeed, so that part it’s not permanent wood (as trunk or branches).

– In young plants, if you have to set up the new branches you have to operate only during the spring in shoot thinning. There are some exceptions in which you can remove buds but in general what you say it’s correct, always use shoot thinning in .

This is my general advidce : You should use the rules for preserving the wood – crown cuts, spare wood, etc…- everywhere you are operating in a wood that must remains (and must be kept alive), remove the buds and the basal buds everywhere the wood must be cut off. Remember : in all the node there is a diagphram : preserving it you preserve the wood from necrosis. And you have to preserve the wood you need to keep alive for the primary/secondary/third structure, you don’t need to preserve the spare wood…

There are many examples of pruning young plants in the new VINE PRUNER ADVANCED Courses, available from 13th January 2022.