HMC News – April 2026

The vines are growing rapidly in our California table grapes. This month we are shoot thinning more vineyards with more people as compared to April of 2025. Shoot thinning removes non-vital, new growth to help redirect nutrients to the portions of the vines where we would like to encourage growth. It is important to stay ahead of the work to be more efficient, the timing of shoot thinning and the other pre-harvest tasks are very important. Hopefully this slight cool down in weather allows us to get ahead even more so we aren’t chasing the crop/growth all Spring.

Pictured below is a newly planted high-density orchard with a permanent trellis system. These pictures give a great visual of how many more trees per acre are required for high density vs. traditional plantings. These trees will bear fruit by 2027, which is a year or two earlier than the traditional system.

Color is breaking on our peaches and nectarines. The fruit is moving along and continuing to progress nicely. We are still tracking about 10 days ahead of last year. We had scattered showers throughout this month but avoided any severe weather. There is some weather predicted again but we will continue to watch the skies, keep our hail nets on our crops, and cross our fingers.

Bloom is a very critical time in our table grape vineyards. While the buds are flowering, we use bloom sprays to help the future berries shatter (fall off the bunch). The additional space gives the remaining berries room to grow and encourages airflow through the bunches and vineyards, both of which lead to a better quality piece of fruit. At this point we are 90%+ of the way through our sprays. Now begins the hard part of being patient and waiting to see how the bunches will shatter out. We averaged around 21 days earlier in bloom than last year. Though that definitely doesn’t mean we’ll be picking 21 days earlier than last year, it’s another strong sign that this will be an early year.