Cutting back

Our vines have dropped almost all their leaves. Between now and next spring, we'll need to prune the vines such that we get fruit, and that fruit is easy to get at. Question is - when to prune?

Seems like the gist is this: you can prune at any time during dormancy, however your biggest enemy is springtime freezes - if you've pruned, and the shoots start growing, they run the risk of being frozen off if the temperatures dip too low. A good thing about being in NorCal is that while we have frost sometimes, an actual freeze is pretty rare. I do remember snow recently as late as March here (a rare occurence, but it *could* happen) - so we've opted to take D'Augustine Vineyard's recommendation with regards to pruning: basically, get rid of lots of the old vines now, before the rains, then actually prune before budbreak in March/April.

It's also apparently very important not to cut your vines in the rain, or within a day or two of rain, or in heavy fog. This is to reduce the chance of Eutypa. Apparently an effective, but non-EPA registered, preventative measure is to apply a diluted solution of Dreft, a laundry detergent for babies.

Row by row, I'll get these vines cleaned up. Sadly it looks like it might rain later today, so I stopped at one row and will plug away through the next month or two during the dry spells.