Pruning the Backyard Grapevine
Proper pruning of your backyard grapevines is essential to maintain vine
size, shape, and yield of the grapes. If you don't prune your vines,
they will become unruly, tangled messes. Fruit ripeness will suffer.
Overproduction of the vine may lead to premature death. It is also one
of the harder things to visualize but one of the easier things to
accomplish for the home gardener. Good plant maintenance should be
at the forefront of every gardeners mind.
Pruning is performed in the early spring while the vine is still
dormant. This is done in February, March, or early April depending upon
when the grapevines generally come out of dormancy and bud out.
Pruning the grapevine and training the vine go hand-in-hand. You must
decide the way you want to train the vine in order to prune it
correctly. Vines that "droop" should be trained to a top wire of about 6
feet. Canes are then pruned and trained outward from
the middle on each side of the trunk.
As the new shoots grow, they droop
on each side of this high pruned wire, naturally, taking in account of
their habit of growth. Concord, and other native American varieties are
typical of those varieties that droop downward naturally.
Varieties that grow upright are trained to a low wire of about 3 feet
and allowed to grow upward according to their natural growth habit.
These varieties need several wires above the trained canes in order that
the upright growing shoots have something to attach to.
Often, you will
need to tie the growing shoots to these wires to keep the grown going up
and to prevent wind damage. European grapes, V. vinifera, and many
hybrid varieties (crosses between the European grape and American
species) fall into this category.
Whether trained to a high wire or to a low wire, the pruning techniques
are the same. The amount of one-year old, fruitful wood to be left after
pruning is dependent upon the amount of vegetation produced during the
previous growing season.
Usually, around 90-95% of last year's growth is
pruned off. The wood left is dependent upon the variety, how vigorous
last years growth was, whether the variety over produces or under
produces, and how old the vine is all enter into how you will prune it.
Grapes bear fruit on one year old wood. Thus when you prune the vine you
will be leaving one year old buds to produce the fruit clusters this
year. Much of what will be removed is two year wood with attached canes
from last year's growth (that won't be needed this year) and excess one
year old canes. When pruning you will be trying to balance the growth of
the vine based upon how it grew and bore fruit last year.
I repeat again that your overriding concern here
is for good plant maintenance overall.
Excessively vigorous vines that overbore their fruit last year will be
pruned with more buds as this will de vigor the growth and balance the
vine's growth this year. Low vigor vines will be left with fewer buds to
invigorate their growth this year.
The two methods of pruning grapevines are short "spurs" and long
"canes". The idea behind spur and cane pruning is the same. They differ
in which of the buds are the most fruitful on the particular variety you
are pruning. Varieties where the bottom buds are fruitful are spur
pruned. Varieties where the bottom buds aren't fruitful are generally
cane pruned.
Spur pruned vines are trained to heads and cordons. The difference here
is that head trained vines are pruned to a couple to several spurs close
in to the main trunk of the vine. Cordon trained vines have arms
extending out from the trunk, on each side, with several spurs generated
along the main frame of the arms. Either way of training has spurs of
two to three buds each.
Cane pruning involves leaving at least one long cane of one-year old
wood on each side of the trunk. The number of buds to leave depends on
the variety and how much growth of the vine occurred during the last
growing season.
Usually, 7-12 buds are left on each cane. But this is
relative. And that's where pruning becomes an art. After several years
you will gain a "feel" of how many buds to leave based upon its
performance in the prior
growing season.
Besides the cane that is left, a small, two-bud spur is left for next
year's cane and spur. That's why this method is often referred to as
cane and spur pruning. The spur that is left at pruning time is known as
a renewal spur. It gives rise to next year's cane and renewal spur.
Each year the job of pruning will become easier. You will soon begin to
understand what is happening as you watch your vine grow during the
summer. Your visualization of how the vine is supposed to look each year
will grow. This will make the pruning each spring go smoothly.
The tools used to prune your grapevines are hand pruners, loppers, and
small handsaws. Select the appropriate pruning tool to remove the wood
as cleanly as possible and reduce unnecessary injury to the vine. Hand
pruners are used to remove one year old
wood. Older wood requires the use of loppers. Sometimes old, unfruitful
trunks need to be removed. This is where the handsaw comes in.
Learning the art of grapevine pruning takes time and practice. You can
contact your local county Ag Extension agent or Agricultural University
for bulletins on grapevine pruning.
These grapevine pruning bulletins have drawings and pictures of what you
are trying to accomplish and will make your pruning easier.
Just make
sure that, with good plant maintenance to the fore again, you prune your grapevines every year to maintain their size
and shape, and to maximize the fruit
production and overall fruit quality.
Author: Jim Bruce
About the author:
Jim Bruce has been growing grapes since the mid-seventies under a range
of growing conditions. His Rist Canyon Vineyards is a research project
to aid others in growing grapes. More information can be found at
http://www.ristcanyonvineyards.com
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