¿What would it happen if we didn't desucker?

If we did not desucker, the vine would expand into dozens of branches that could form an impenetrable tangle, a dense jungle, a mass of leaves and tendrils that would prevent the entry of air and light into the plant, seriously compromising the health of the grape. Clusters would huddle together looking for living space and losing health, quality, balance. The vine would lose its shape and, because of the excessive weight of its green mass, would tend to squat, to scatter its branches on the ground, to grow disorderly without remedy, being carried away by the call of its original state. At the end, a vine is a liana!

Dramatizations aside, at this point the reader will have already intuited that 'desuckering' has to do with taking care of the plant. In fact, desuckering, or green pruning, is one of the vine cycle most important tasks. It is also one of the most unknown by the general public. It consists in tearing out the surplus shoots, those branches that will not provide clusters or that will take energy from the vine, especially those long sterile stems that are born from the trunk of the vine and that we call, very graphically, "suckers". It is a job that should be done in these spring dates, when the buds have already reached around 20 centimeters.

Our farm in the Sierra de Yerga, after finishing desuckering, in mid-May 2018

It is necessary to achieve, in short, a correct development of the plant and the quality of its production, both in the short term ?the current vintage? and in the long term ?the shaping of a balanced and long-lived vineplant. In addition, the desuckering has a very beneficial side effect: at the time of winter pruning, we will have less work to cut woody branches, which will save us time and effort.

A rich language

The Latin "ex-purgare", which means "to clean", is at the origin of Spanish word for desuckering, "espergura", a word commonly used in Rioja that has become the standard technical term for naming the vine green pruning. But there are many synonyms. Only in the DOCa Rioja vineyard are forms such as "escardar" (Uruñuela), "deshornizar" (Camprovín and Tobía river valley), "esparrar" (Alcanadre) or "esforijinar" (Cornago).. In other regions, it is common to speak of "despampanar" (Navarra), "esporgar" (Valencia, Aragón, Catalonia), "esboldrar" (Salamanca). In France the most common words are "ébourgeonnage" and "épamprage", and in German they say "Ausbrechen" and "Ausschneiden".

 

Riqueza lingüística

El latín ?ex-purgare?, que significa?limpiar?, está en el origen de ?espergura?, palabra de uso común en el campo riojano que se ha convertido en el término técnico estándar para nombrar la poda en verde de la vid. Pero existen muchos sinónimos. Solo en el viñedo de la DOCa Rioja se utilizan formas como escardar (Uruñuela), deshornizar (Camprovín y el valle del Tobía), esparrar (Alcanadre) o esforijinar (Cornago). En otras regiones es habitual hablar de despampanar (Navarra), esporgar (Valencia, Aragón, Cataluña), esboldrar (Salamanca)... Y ya sin clara adscripción territorial, la riqueza lingüística de este proceso alcanza vocablos como castrar, deslechugar, destallar, despimpollar, desramillar, desarrocinar, esbordegar, espurgar, escardar, desmamonar y desfollonar."