A very important piece of information a grower of table or wine grapes needs to know is the number of viable buds on their canes or spurs. This information dictates the extent of their pruning in the winter. California Ag Supply can help you gather this information through our Grape Bud Analysis service.

If you supply us with your canes or spurs we will microscopically examine the buds to determine their fruitfulness. On cane pruned varieties we usually examine buds 3, 6 and 9 from the vine end. On spur pruned varieties we usually measure buds 1, 2 and 3. Sometimes a grower requests we measure the fourth bud as well.	Canes of varieties Thompson Seedless are sampled by taking the full cane and selecting buds along the cane
Spurs of varieties like Flame Seedless are taken to include 3 to 4 buds

We report our findings in terms of the number and percentage of buds that have a viable bunch in them as well as buds that do not. We provide you the information per bud and per sample so you can keep track of where the samples can from in your field. We take about 10 days to get this information to you from the day we receive the samples.

California Ag Supply recommends you submit 20 cane or spur samples per 20 to 40 acres if the vineyard is uniform in soil, age, slope etc... If the vineyard is substantially non-uniform we recommend taking 1 sample per acre.

Close up of bud on a grape spur

To have Grape Bud Analysis done for your vineyard, contact us at the address below.