Most folks prune in the winter months of January/February. Mainly it is because if you prune in the fall the vines will bud earlier in the spring, and if they do and you get a hard freeze then you will lose most of your crop. Here in Sebastopol, I have not seen hard frosts the end of March to mid-April. So, I am going to begin pruning now as it will take me at least 80 hours this year to prune and probably 120 hours in future years. This will spread out my work thoughout the year, without the mad rush in February/March/April. Hopefully I’m right about the frost timing.

November 10 – 1 hour
November 12 – 4.5 hours and 4.5 hours hired
November 13 – 5.5 hours and 5.75 hours hired (1050 vines completed)
November 23 – 4 hours hired fixing drip lines
November 24 – 2 hours hired fixing drip lines
November 26 – 5.5 hours hired and 4 hours pruning
December 11 – 3 hours pruning
December 28 – 3 hours hired pruning
December 29 – 4 hours hired weeding
December 31 – 6.5 hours hired pruning
January 2 – 6 hours hired and 3 hours pruning
January 3 – 3 hours pruning
January 7 – 3 hours pruning … Done!

Total – 58.25 hours vs 2013 plan of 80 hours…off to a good start, better than plan!