How To Prune Grape Vines In The Beginning Years - Six Critical Steps


by Therese B - Date: 2009-11-06 - Word Count: 496 Share This!

Now that your grapes have started to grow, and are climbing the trellis system you have set-up, you will need to know how to prune grape vines in the beginning years. The pruning is important for the vines to produce more fruit. This article will give you some ways to prune your vines to get the most fruit from them.

1 - During the first season of growth for the vine train it to grow on the wire of the trellis. Prune any of the shoots that grow laterally off of the vine.

2 - Then in the second season of growth, you will see shoots begin to grow from buds on the vine or trunk pruned first season. Only keep 2 of the shoots that are positioned about 2 to 6 inches beneath the trellis's wire. Then you need to train the shoots to grow on the wire on each side of the main vine. It is these shoots that will be the fruiting arms or canes. Make sure to remove any other shoots, except for these two, when they are still just small. Also cut off any suckers or clusters of flowers as they appear.

3 - During winter number two, prune the two canes back to having 7 to 8 buds a piece this makes 14 to 16 buds on each plant. These buds will produce fruit so it is vital that your new vines not get overloaded.

4 - During the third season of growth you will see shoots emerge from the canes that are a year old by this time. These shoots will produce fruit. If more than one cluster of fruit develops on a shoot trim off the other ones. This way your young plant will not overbear.

5 - To prune grape vines correctly in their third winter, you have to choose the new wood for fruiting and cut off the rest, which can be as much as 90 percent of other canes. Make sure your fruiting canes are the ones that get enough light for one thing. They also should be about the diameter of a pencil and the internodes should be an average length apart. When these are two far apart it means the canes are growing too fast. You have to keep the area of fruiting as close to the plant's trunk as you can.

6 - You need to then select two new canes for fruiting and trim them back to approximately 15 buds for a total of 30 on each plant. If there is a plant growing slower than the other plants then leave even less buds on that plant. Take the canes and wrap them on the wire and tie them on the ends.

There is more to pruning than what we have written here. This article is to instruct you in how to prune grape vines in the beginning of its growth. Through the years there will be more pruning that you have to do to get your vines to produce up to their potential.

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