Martin Gallasch competing in the individual spur round.

By Camellia Aebischer

Yesterday, on a gloomy Tuesday morning, the state’s most efficient pruners were out in the field at the Nuriootpa Research Station vineyards.

Individual cane, and spur pruners were judged on their ability to efficiently and precisely prune two sections of vine. There was also a team spur competition for groups of three to battle it out.

Later in the afternoon, Marco Tessari from Simonit and Sirch offered a comprehensive rundown on his company’s innovative pruning technique. The technique is based on making minimal cuts on old wood, and fostering healthy sap channels to maximise cane quality.

The results for the 2017 SA Pruning Competition are listed below

Wolf Blass Shield:

Steve Schiller

Team Spur:

1^st place, Cutting Edge

2^nd place, Annie’s Lane

3^rd place, Light Pass Cricket Club

Individual Spur:

1^st place, Mark Storton

2^nd place, Steve Schiller

3^rd place, Ryan Longmire

Individual Cane:

1^st place, Jason Boehm

2^nd place, Dean Willoughby

3^rd place, Steve Schiller

It was seemingly a good day for Schiller, who took out an award in each category, even the team spur round.

A full rundown of the Pruning Expo and a detailed scores list from the pruning competition will be available in the July edition of Grapegrower & Winemaker Magazine.