Best time to prune a 2nd year grapevine?

[ShawnKirkpatrick]

Last year I bought a "Niagara Grapevine" From lowes. And put up a trellis, got the trunk straight, so now I'm wondering, How do you prune this thing? And what time of year? Any help would be great. Thank You.

[JONA878]

I guess by 'trellis ' Shawn you want the vine to spread in two directions along your support system.
Has you vine produced any side shoots yet.
What you need is for the vine to have side shoots on either side of the main trunk . These will be tied in to your trellis and become the structures from which the cropping shoots will grow.
If your vine is still just a straight trunk and has no side shoots then you will have to persuade it to grow some.
Cut the vine back to just above the point where you want the side shoots to be.
This will encourage the plant to give you the shoots in the correct position. It's best to do this in the spring once you are sure that any spring frost is past. Just in case any buds get frost damaged.
Once the vine has grown on and main structure is tied in place ...year three. The cropping shoots should then grow up and will need tieing in as they grow.
Once the grapes have set and are swelling well then you can prune back to two leaves beyond the bunch on each cropping shoot. this will keep the whole plant tidy and give the bunches good light.
After cropping prune back the shoots to two to three buds from the main structure again. Once more to allow for frost problems.
This should be done once the plant is fully dormant. ( winter months)

Pretty general I know and depends a lot on how well it grows....but hope it helps.

[ShawnKirkpatrick]

Yea, it has produced a couple of side shoots.

I guess by 'trellis ' Shawn you want the vine to spread in two directions along your support system.
Has you vine produced any side shoots yet.
What you need is for the vine to have side shoots on either side of the main trunk . These will be tied in to your trellis and become the structures from which the cropping shoots will grow.
If your vine is still just a straight trunk and has no side shoots then you will have to persuade it to grow some.
Cut the vine back to just above the point where you want the side shoots to be.
This will encourage the plant to give you the shoots in the correct position. It's best to do this in the spring once you are sure that any spring frost is past. Just in case any buds get frost damaged.
Once the vine has grown on and main structure is tied in place ...year three. The cropping shoots should then grow up and will need tieing in as they grow.
Once the grapes have set and are swelling well then you can prune back to two leaves beyond the bunch on each cropping shoot. this will keep the whole plant tidy and give the bunches good light.
After cropping prune back the shoots to two to three buds from the main structure again. Once more to allow for frost problems.
This should be done once the plant is fully dormant. ( winter months)

Pretty general I know and depends a lot on how well it grows....but hope it helps.

[JONA878]

Yea, it has produced a couple of side shoots.

Then you may be able to use these two shoots to make your the side branches of your vine.
If your framework support is fairly tall then you could leave the central growth in place and let it break again higher up so that you finish with two
levels of side growth. Like an espalier.

[jal_ut]

Yes, see if you can get it to develop some scaffold branches this season. Once that is accomplished, you will want to prune it severely in the spring before growth starts. Since the plant blooms on the new growth, you can cut it back to 3 or 4 buds on each scaffold branch. I can't believe how much growth a grape can put on in a season.

[ShawnKirkpatrick]

Yeah, those suckers sure can grow... Alot!! I just planted that grape vine last year and it grew atleast 1 1/2 - 2 feet and put out the branches that grow along the trellis!! So what your saying is just to prune back only about 3 or 4 buds at the beginning of spring on all four branches (I don't know what there called)?

Yes, see if you can get it to develop some scaffold branches this season. Once that is accomplished, you will want to prune it severely in the spring before growth starts. Since the plant blooms on the new growth, you can cut it back to 3 or 4 buds on each scaffold branch. I can't believe how much growth a grape can put on in a season.

[OROZCONLECHE]

Hey, I have a Grape Vine, before i never cared about it till now, but now its all dryed up, the Trunk is about 3-4inches thick, there is no leaves on it, is it dead or will it come back next year, and can I prune it like this before spring?

[ShawnKirkpatrick]

Right now it's dormant, which means its in it's deep sleep like hibernation. The leaves fall off in the winter time just like trees, one because I don't think the leaves would last long in the freezing temps, and second the plant does not grow any in this dormant time so I guess there is no need for it's leaves. But when spring rolls around just prune it and show it some TLC and see what happens! I think it just looks dried up because it's the old wood part of it, but with a 3-4" trunk sounds like it's a pretty decent age and I guess you have a pretty good root system. Hope this helps, I am nowhere near an expert at this kinda of stuff so if I'm wrong about anything somebody please correct me.

Hey, I have a Grape Vine, before i never cared about it till now, but now its all dryed up, the Trunk is about 3-4inches thick, there is no leaves on it, is it dead or will it come back next year, and can I prune it like this before spring?

[OROZCONLECHE]

Yea I was wondering as last year it produced fruit and I wss puzzeled to see it just gived out like that and I hope your correct, I mean it makes sense

[Runningtrails]

I need grapevine pruning info too! I have twelve 'Valient' grapevines I started from seed last spring. They are dong well for first year plants and spreading. Next year I am building a fence for them to climb on. I have the post in place already.

[amalgamate]

This is probably a dumb question, but I don't have a clue what I'm doing with my grapevine...

When you say side shoots, do you mean the limbs growing from the main trunk or a shoot that actually grows towards the side of the trunk just at ground level? I have both kinds growing on my 3-year grapevine. My grandfather-in-law said this spring I should try to root the shoot growing from the ground and then cut it off from the main plant.

[JONA878]

This is probably a dumb question, but I don't have a clue what I'm doing with my grapevine...

When you say side shoots, do you mean the limbs growing from the main trunk or a shoot that actually grows towards the side of the trunk just at ground level? I have both kinds growing on my 3-year grapevine. My grandfather-in-law said this spring I should try to root the shoot growing from the ground and then cut it off from the main plant.

They are probably both the same thing in essence.
The one proviso would be if the vine was on a root stock. Then it would be just possable that the lower shoot was growing from that stock rather than from the true vine.
Either way it would be worth rooting it up and finding out by growing it on.
the higher shoots could then be the ones you use to train on as your main vine.

[amalgamate]

Thanks for the recommendation!