Fall Grape Care

[ReptileAddiction]

So I have a grape vine that I have had for 4 years now. I had it in pots because my I was moving and have had no place to plant it. Now I own a house on a golf course so I planted it along the fence. When I planted it about a month ago it was about 3 feet long. Now it is over 7. It is huge compared to what it was before. I am training the main stem along the part where the cement part meets the the metal bars. I have the stems that go up going along the bars that go vertically. Anyway, I am wondering what I need to do for fall/winter care. I heard that I should prune??? I have never gotten fruit but I am expecting fruit this coming summer.

[SOB]

Here in Ohio we wait until late winter - before spring warms things up (Feb-March) and prune the grapes. With you being in SoCal I don't know what to tell you. Ask your county extension office or see if they have a publication about growing grapes on their website.

[JONA878]

Where you have plenty of room to let the grape grow then you may not have to prune too hard for a year or two.
There are many ways to train grapes, but one method that I have found very successful on trellis work is this.
You train the leaders that you wish to use as a frame for your grape along some form of support system.
How many leaders you let your plant have is decided by either the room they can have and also the strength of the vine.
These leaders are left alone as they are just the carriers of the side shoots that will do all the cropping.
They will only be pruned once they have reached the full length that you can let the vine have.
Along the length of these main structure branch/ branches, side shoots will grow out. These are allowed to grow and are tied in to a support wire until they produce a bunch of grares in the early summer. Then they are tipped a couple of leaves beyond the forming bunch so that energy is put into the growing fruit.
Dureing the latter part of the summer you will find that extra growth will occur on these shoots...just cut this off now and then to allow good light to fall on the grapes as they ripen.
In the winter these side shoots are cut back to two to three buds.
( In theory they could be cut back to one bud....but if you then get a spring frost you have no spare buds waiting as replacements. )

This is a reliable way, but as first stated it is only one of many types of training that you can do.

Hope that helps.

[ReptileAddiction]

That is basically what I am doing now. I have decided I will prune it VERY LIMITED this winter thann do what you said when the grapes come