Chano Aguayo

Beach

Allow me to state that cane pruning creates fewer cuts which makes a vine less susceptible to diseases.  Ask any grower why he/she uses the VSP system is that no pruning skill is required. Many vineyards usually at pruning time hire skilled and non-skilled pruners.. Training a new pruner only takes about ten minutes and only needs to be instructed to leave two buds. For cane pruning, it takes a few years, period. For cane pruning once you get the knack of it, you do not need to count buds and judgement takes into consideration the entire vine canopy by assessing previous year's year production. My rule is no more than nine buds per cane.

Personally if I were a small grower (Vinifera) I would cane prune  As far as buds proximity to their bases, here is what  has worked for me. As a rule, I like those buds with more sun exposure for next year's crop. Normally in most vineyard pruners prune to two buds one may be on the sun side and the second on the shade side.  I leave three buds and see how they grow. If all three buds grow, I rub the one on the shade side and leave the two on the sun side and try to keep them as vertically as possible because research concluded that vertically positioned spurs/canes are more productive. Check this with any "grape doctor" and see what they say.  Thanks.

Chano