Pruned

A curious thing happens during the grape vine pruning season out behind our house. The parcels are owned by several different growers. Many of the growers are out there themselves pruning their vines. A couple of them burn the trimmings in barrels as they go. The others line the trimmings neatly between the rows and then come by later with a mulcher attached to a tractor and grind them up.

A pruned grape vine covered in frost.

The grower with the largest parcels has employees who do the pruning. In some parcels, they line the trimmings up between the rows, and he drives his tractor over them in late spring to grind them. But in other parcels, the pruners simply clip the vines and leave the trimmings hanging there. Later, itinerant workers go through and pull the trimmings off the rows and line them up for grinding.

This photo is from one of those parcels where the vines are trimmed and left hanging.