This summer, the vines will continue to grow and will soon be big enough to be trained along the lower wire. At the moment we are growing a single leader to establish the vine, all the vines have had secondary shoots nipped, or removed, so the plants energy can go into this first cane. By the end of the summer (end April) the first cane hopefully will be about the size of a pencil, and the tip will be pruned to the required length (1m) ready to produce the first grapes next summer.

I brush-cut the weeds along the rows just after taking the pictures yesterday. Got to finish weed spraying later, but it rained last night so I can't do that until the grass dries out. We will keep the guards on the vines probably for another month or 6 weeks, do one more weed spray, and then remove the guards as the vines will be big enough by then to be able to spray without harming them.

I was never happy about weed spraying when we lived in the UK, but over here, with our sub tropical climate, I fear we have to do it, the weeds would overwhelm us if we had to do it all manually.