010: Top Tips for Training Your Pruning Crew

Vineyard Underground

You may know how to prune, but does your pruning crew know how YOU prune? Whether you’re getting your friends or neighbors to help you out or you’re hiring a large contracted crew, how they prune your vineyard can impact not only the success of this season but also the long-term health of your vineyard.

In today's episode, we are going to talk about some things you need to consider for hiring a pruning crew, training options for your crew, and my top tips for training your pruning crew.

Pruning is arguably the most critical management task for setting your vineyard up for a successful season so you must plan early. Your goals can change from season to season. Therefore, you need to ensure your vineyard is properly pruned for the age of your vines, the location of your vineyard, and your vineyard goals for the season.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Planning the size and timing of your crew
• The challenge with blending in-house talent with outside labor
• Why you should invest in trained labor
• Training the crew - yourself, training videos, or a vineyard consultant
• Why you need to teach from multiple examples
• The importance of assigning each worker to their own vine rows

Subscribe and Review

Have you subscribed to our podcast? We’d love for you to subscribe if you haven’t yet.

We’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast.

Supporting Resources:

Click the “Ask Fritz” button at VineyardUndergroundPodcast.com to get your vineyard question answered.

Learn to Be a Better Grape Grower with VirtualViticultureAcademy.com.

Upcoming FREE Virtual Learning Events:

Top 10 Dormant Pruning Mistakes in Your Vineyard - January 19, 2023 | 6:00-7:30 PM CST - https://www.virtualviticultureacademy.com/product/pruning2023/

Using Soil Moisture Monitoring for Irrigation Management - February 9, 2023 | 6:00-7:30 PM CST - https://www.virtualviticultureacademy.com/product/sms/

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know we sent you.