The crying of the vine

Have you ever been lucky enough to walk among the rows of a vineyard in the period between March and April? It is one of the most magical and exciting moments of spring because the vine awakens from the long winter hibernation, during which it is pruned to strengthen it to face the summer heat, it resumes its vegetative cycle and droplets can be glimpsed from the pruned branches. of sap, which are called "weeping of the vine".

All this can be interpreted as a cry for life, the plant reactivates to resume its cycle and this happens when temperatures begin to exceed 10°C, returning lymphatic activity to the vine, which regains its energy.

These "tears" are made up of nitrogenous, mineral and organic substances, such as tartrates, acids and sugars (glucose) coming from the hydrolysis of root starch, which rise from the roots along the wood of the vine and emerge from the xylem vessels from the cuts to the branches made during pruning.

Once this process is complete, the budding phase will begin, in which the first shoots will appear on the vine, which will become the future shoots from which the grapes will grow.