Grape Vines

[wigglywart]

Hi everybody I hope everyone is having a great sunday, here in North Carolina after a rainy day its beautiful!

I have a question about my grape vine.
Since its a year old and I have no clue in what I am doing I'm kinda confused and I am learning this day by day so If I over looked the question already asked, sorry.

On my grapes I have 2 vines, bottom of the plant and top of the plant shooting to the left and 2 more vines bottom and top shooting right. In alot of the pictures and videos I see there grapes only have a vine going left and right.
Ive tried finding the answer but no one seems to mention it.

My grapes on the bottom are like dirty or stained from the dirt, and the top grapes look perfect so I was wondering is, when its time to prune them should I prune the bottom vines away and leave only the tops?

Much thanks in advance

[critterfeeder]

I am wondering about the big picture first. Do you have soil that is sandy, organic, rich, and drains well? Is the planting site exposed to several hours of bright sun, or is shade covering the spot? Are you keeping the planting site moist? Are you mulching to keep out weeds, as well as benefitting the plant in other ways? Do you have a horizontal wire running about 4 feet above the vine to support it? Did you pick a variety that is a known producer in your area? Is it a variety that is disease prone and thus needs chemical spraying? Do you have room to plant several vines? If all the other things check out OK, this is what I might do for now.......I would let the multiple vines on one set of roots grow until winter to hopefully grow more roots. In winter I would pick the biggest, healthiest vine and tie it to a pole or anchored wire that would lead it to the horizontal wire above. I would clip off any portion of this main trunk that was longer than horizontal wire.I would prune away other competing vines, and thus the root system would be directing all of it's effort to the chosen vine. As the buds on the vine grew out, I would pick one to grow to the right and tie it along the wire as it grew. Likewise, I would pick one growing on the left to follow the wire. I would continually look for any new side growth on the vertical vine and remove it, thus directing all growth potential to the 2 'arms' only. As things grow along you will end up with a "Tee" shaped grape vine. Ther are benefits to training the vine, but the vine will grow in all directions with many side shoots if you let it. I'm glad that you are trying your hand at growing grapes. I enjoy strolling in the yard and picking ripe Supreme and Ison muscadine grapes to eat while checking out the various plants in the yard.

[wigglywart]

Sorry wish I could of responded sooner but you gotta love the internet company.
I didn't do anything special to my soil. I planted the grape vine in some clay soil I didn't know you wasn't suppose to plant there, so I ended up mixing in some humus as well. It drains well, plus Ive read your suppose to mound up around the base so that it helps drain. My grapes get a load of sun, from 10am till dawn in fact. I was not sure what to do with the soil so the soil isn't moist but if I need to that will not be a problem. I took out all the grass from the area the grapes are at and I have some mulch I was gonna lay down, I put in a couple posts with wire running and I gotta say they are growing like crazy with several shoots looking like next year will be even better with grapes than what I have out there now. I have not used any chemicals I prefer not use poison if I can get away from it, but I would like to know what kinds of fertilizers I can use that are safe for the environment and for the grapes as well. and I'll include a couple pics so you may get a better idea. thanks in advance!

https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30337&id=100000178209148

The Pictures aren't in order so the green ones in the end is the start and the finished ones are in the start.