VineWine
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:22 pm

Need help regarding a grape vine

Hello everyone. I'm a beginner (and I mean beginner) interested in growing grape vines. The reason I joined this forum is because there are so many videos on the internet, but I have yet to find one that addresses my problem.

My problem has to do with pruning a grape vine. I'm trying to do some pruning before the spring truly hits and the vines begin to leaf out. The Vines in question were neglected you can say. They produced grapes, one more than the other, but you could tell they had not been pruned for multiple seasons.

This is the vine in question:

Image

The trellis system is incredibly weak, and to my rookie eyes, the vine seems to be too bushy. Well, that was last season. It produced a greenish seedless grape that I suppose matured reddish. I'm guessing that because of the canopy and the 'vigor' of the leaf growth, they never truly ripened. This was part of the harvest:

Image

That season passed and this is what was left of that growth just a few days ago:

Image

I had completely no idea what I was doing, but I decided a lot of it had to go. So I took out a saw and my secateurs and I began to go away at it. This is what I accomplished that day.

Image

As you all can tell, there are still a few thick branches stemming out from the main trunk on the very bottom. I don't know how to proceed from here. One thing that threw me off and made it more difficult, was that I hear a lot about cane pruning. And I sort of understand that, because the other grape fine has canes just like those I've seen repeatedly in videos. In fact, this is what I ended up doing to that second vine

Image
Image
Image

But the problem is that the vine I'm asking about (the majority of the pics I've posted) doesn't have those long canes that I so commonly see. Instead, they look like antlers. This is the best picture I could get to describe it:

Image

There's lots of old growth (over one year I'm guessing) branching out of a 'cordon' (I suppose) and there's only new growth at the end. So I have no idea how to go about pruning this and only choosing one cane when the new growth is literally at the end of everything that is recommended I prune off.

If anyone can tell me how to proceed with pruning these vines, I'd greatly appreciate it. Do I cut off all the other branchings from the trunk and only leave the straightest one? What do I do about the antlers? How do I go about getting rid of those and if I get rid of those, will I have new canes spring about? Also, is it possible to build a new trellis/support system now that the plants have been established there for years? If I can get advice regarding the two vines, I would greatly appreciate it.

I dug and dug online for resources regarding the questions I'm posting here and I couldn't for the life of me, find anything that addressed this specifically. So my last resort was googling "grape forum" and this popped up. So I'm here asking for help from people who know what they're talking about, so that I avoid making as many mistakes as I possibly can.

Thank you very much.

JONA
Greener Thumb
Posts: 812
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:11 am
Location: Sussex. England

Hi Vinewine,

As you say...it’s a bit of a tangle.
From you photo in the dormant stage it looks like you’ve got two wires running either side of the vine a couple of feet apart.

So.
From the main trunk of the vine select one long branch to run along each wire.
That’s four branches in all, and tie these to the wires.

Remove all other main branches.


Go along each of these branches and cut all the shoots coming off it back to two buds. (This will allow for one bud to suffer frost damage without losing the crop).

These buds will throw a new shoot on which a bunch of grapes will form. Trim the shoot back to two leaves beyond the bunch.

This keeps the whole vine neat and tidy and you can see the crop for desease and pest watch.
Hope that helps.

VineWine
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:22 pm

JONA wrote:Hi Vinewine,

As you say...it’s a bit of a tangle.
From you photo in the dormant stage it looks like you’ve got two wires running either side of the vine a couple of feet apart.

So.
From the main trunk of the vine select one long branch to run along each wire.
That’s four branches in all, and tie these to the wires.

Remove all other main branches.


Go along each of these branches and cut all the shoots coming off it back to two buds. (This will allow for one bud to suffer frost damage without losing the crop).

These buds will throw a new shoot on which a bunch of grapes will form. Trim the shoot back to two leaves beyond the bunch.

This keeps the whole vine neat and tidy and you can see the crop for desease and pest watch.
Hope that helps.
Hello JONA, and thank you for your response. There is actually only one wire but it is VERY loose (little tension) now and I will actually try to find a way to tighten that a bit more so the main cordon can lay as parallel to the ground as possible.

When you say "cut all the shoots coming off it to two buds" does that mean that that particular vine is NOT going to be cane pruned? That is the confusing part for me.

The 2nd vine I posted (the smaller of the two vines) is a separate variety (not sure what either one is to be entirely frank) and it lends itself nicely to the cane pruning system.

The 1st vine (the larger of the two) does not seem like it's going to lend itself to cane pruning. The reason I believe this is that it has no new cane growth from the main stem, as the 2nd vine does. So should I just leave one main cordon remaining and trim all the ends of the new growth (projecting from old growth) down to two buds?

JONA
Greener Thumb
Posts: 812
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:11 am
Location: Sussex. England

Whatever training system is used on vines the basic principle is the same. Branches are run from the trunk and these remain as the carriers of the cropping side shoots.
These side shoots are cut back to two buds each winter for cropping the following year.
If there are not enough actual branches but a whole mass of shoots coming from the trunk, then select the number you require and train them to become the branches, cutting off the excess to concentrate the growth into these shoots to make a main structure.
Grapes vines thinned down to just two or four branches will put on a surprising amount of growth each year and you will soon have the required number of branches.

Now on your vine that appears to have only one branch and no shoots.
That branch will produce side shoots itself.
Select one or two that are nearest to the trunk and allow them to grow and not crop. As they grow tie them into the way you want them to go along another wire, or even doubling back to give the vine branches on both sides.
The following year you train them as your required branches.

VineWine
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:22 pm

JONA wrote:Whatever training system is used on vines the basic principle is the same. Branches are run from the trunk and these remain as the carriers of the cropping side shoots.
These side shoots are cut back to two buds each winter for cropping the following year.
If there are not enough actual branches but a whole mass of shoots coming from the trunk, then select the number you require and train them to become the branches, cutting off the excess to concentrate the growth into these shoots to make a main structure.
Grapes vines thinned down to just two or four branches will put on a surprising amount of growth each year and you will soon have the required number of branches.

Now on your vine that appears to have only one branch and no shoots.
That branch will produce side shoots itself.
Select one or two that are nearest to the trunk and allow them to grow and not crop. As they grow tie them into the way you want them to go along another wire, or even doubling back to give the vine branches on both sides.
The following year you train them as your required branches.
I decided to cut off some 'arms' and complete remove other ones. I want to train it down to 1 or 2 arms but I don't know which ones to keep. I'd appreciate any help. Also, will new shoots grow from the 3' tall arms that I've left or am I better off just cutting it to the ground? Thank you. As you might be able to tell, I also built a new trellis system. They were originally on a very poorly made trellis with no tension on the wire and the vine was about 5' in height. I wanted to bring it down to 3' in height instead, and later on I will install catch-wires or use twine in place of wire to hold the shoots in an upward manner, and have the fruiting zone at 3', if that makes sense.

Image

which of these 3 should I keep?

Image
Image

JONA
Greener Thumb
Posts: 812
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:11 am
Location: Sussex. England

All sounds good Vinewine,
As to which of them to remove. I would wait until they had broken into growth and then select the strongest grower. Send us a picture later in the year!
Good luck.



Return to “Grapes - How to Grow Grapes”