With one mast you can do many things just like a Swiss army knife.
The most popular attachment on a Provitis multi use mast is a trimmer but you can swap tools as the seasons progress.
In the winter the pre pruner is the obvious choice as it swiftly removes the upper part of the canes and tendrils enabling hand pruning and pulling out to be much faster than hand work, normally starting in November when the leaves are still on.
The other winter tool is for pulling the canes out having first pruned by hand, and if used in conjunction with a flail mower for mulching the work rate is 3ha to 5ha cleared per day; it pulls the canes out sideways and needs some trellis preparation but avoids contact damage to the wirework and posts.
Moving into spring you swap tools once again onto the trunk cleaner to first remove the trunk buds and later to strim off the weed growth between the vines.
As vine growth increases the pneumatic leaf stripper is employed to first blow off the caps from the flowering heads and then through the season up to and including harvest day to remove unwanted leaves around the grape zone, alternatively the roller plucker type de-leafer can be used.
In high summer, fit the trimmer to the mast. These come in different shapes and sizes; L shape and U shape for single row treatment or double L or U for double row treatment. Then in order to avoid having to employ an army of people to lift wires and tuck in you can attach the lifting and tying tool and with two people cover 3ha to 5ha per day. So to round up, seven different tools can be used on one mast, many of which can also be hired in or made available by a contractor.
To help people who already have their own mast but don’t want to buy each specific tool Vitifruit Equipment can supply the head alone for short term hire however advanced booking is requested.
