Each year the job of manually stripping bits of vine and canes after pruning is a highly challenging vineyard task.

Depending on the grape variety the time required for cane stripping accounts for 35 to 60 man-hours/ha or about 20 – 25 percent of total annual labor input for mechanized pruning. A considerable number of seasonal workers usually have to be deployed to complete this task. The bureaucratic work and organizational effort involved in this ties up resources and incurs hidden costs.

Using the ERO Cane Pruner VITECO significantly reduces the workload for your skilled vineyard workers because only fruiting canes require pruning. The ERO Cane Pruner VITECO raises the movable bending wire and fruiting wires on the machine side of the trellis and guides them to the machine head. All of the canes wrapped around or tied to the wire are shredded while passing through the mulcher and spread in the vineyard. The VITECO cane pruner strips all the woody shoots, tendrils and fruiting canes off the wires with almost no residue.

Removing and repositioning the fruiting wires only takes approx. 6 man-hours/ha and can be completed by pruners immediately after harvesting or during cordon shaping with minimal effort.

A total of approx. 30 to 50 man-hours/ha can be potentially saved from using the ERO VITECO Cane Pruner. Total annual labor input required for mechanized pruning can be reduced up to 20 percent.

     

Prerequisites for using the ERO Cane Pruner VITECO

• Vineyard rows should be at least 70 m long.
• All the wires on the side facing the pruner have to be removable.
• To ensure trouble free cane pruning, the wire trellising frame should be serviced once prior to deploying the cane pruner.

• A return on investment when purchasing all machine components is already achieved starting with only 35 ha of annual vineyard acreage.
  This makes the ERO VITECO cane pruner an attractive mechanization option for large vineyards well as s contract companies.
• PTO output of 25 – 30 kW is required.