sonataq14
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vine pruning question...new member needs help

Hi,
I am new to growing grapes. I just planted my first 6 plants last year. They are Somerset grapes. This year they are all coming in strong. Here is my question....as the vine is growing (I have been pruning off the secondary vines growing off of the primary vine), and the height of the vine reaches the top of my 6-foot high trellis, then I am training the vine to go horizontally (split in 2 directions forming a "T" shape). The horizontal part of the vine (on both left and right sides) is now reaching about 6-feet long. I think this is as long as I am supposed to allow it to grow. is this true? If so, do I prune the end off the vine so it doesn't grow any longer? Please let me know what I do at this point...lots of details please! I apologize for not knowing all the correct names and terminologies for everything yet...I'm trying to learn. Thank you for any help that you can offer.

JONA
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Location: Sussex. England

So far...so good sonataq.
As to length. Vines can grow to a very long length if you want them to. Our own Ruby’s are around twenty feet long. So, just stop them when you are satisfied they are useing all the space you can spare.
Then allow side shoots to develope along each of the main primary vines.

In the winter cut these side shoots back to two buds from the main vines.
( its usual to leave two buds so that if you suffer from an early frost damage..there is a replacement bud there to take over.)
These new buds will grow into side shoots and should soon produce a flower truss. Trim them off one or two leaves beyond the truss

If a branch does not produce a truss after several leaves trim the side shoot back as any truss forming after this distance is sure to be in the way.

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

F424C7F9-9E3E-4060-BDA5-CE6B8D5464C3.jpeg

Gives you this effect.

sonataq14
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JONA wrote:So far...so good sonataq.
As to length. Vines can grow to a very long length if you want them to. Our own Ruby’s are around twenty feet long. So, just stop them when you are satisfied they are useing all the space you can spare.
Then allow side shoots to develope along each of the main primary vines.

In the winter cut these side shoots back to two buds from the main vines.
( its usual to leave two buds so that if you suffer from an early frost damage..there is a replacement bud there to take over.)
These new buds will grow into side shoots and should soon produce a flower truss. Trim them off one or two leaves beyond the truss

If a branch does not produce a truss after several leaves trim the side shoot back as any truss forming after this distance is sure to be in the way.
Thank you for your advice. Next question....do you allow vines from 2 different plants to grow on the same top wire on the trellis between the posts?

JONA
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Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:11 am
Location: Sussex. England

In theory...ok.
I suspect though that the they would soon thicken up and present a crowding problem as well as being very heavy for just a single wire.

YaHuWaHsHarvest
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Joined: Wed May 13, 2020 4:11 pm

I’ve never pruned my grapes like the mennonites suggested and do and I get so many more grapes than they do. I get so many that I can’t use them all and allow neighbors to share in them.
This year I took them way down because I was going to dig them out because we are moving but I’m not sure how well they will do after digging them up. Anyways I never pruned them in the 6 years they had been growing over two trellises with one plant on each side and they hung down down everywhere. In my little hometown when I was little they did not trim theirs either and had so many grapes. They had a round tunnel of string pipes with metal wires across them. Everyone had them like that.
I used cedar wood trellises for mine on the sides and used lattice on the top. I used mineral fertilizers from Walmart in the spring a couple years ago and once in awhile I through Epsom salts around but I haven’t done any of that religiously.
My plants were not in the sun all day and then they grew over the lattice and then the tops of them were in the full sun. I live in Tennessee and the first year I put mulch on them to protect them from the winter.
The grapes I ate off the vines as a kid that nobody trimmed or pruned were in Michigan. I don’t know what varieties they were, but they all grew just fine my whole life as a kid. I never seen anyone fertilize but they may have. I doubt they all did because some were too old to barely come to the door n sat in rockers.
So this is my experience with them. There’s a place in Michigan that sells grapes to Walmart here in Tennessee which I was amazed to see. You may want to call them for information also. I’m not sure how old the vineyard is. I imagine all the new ones have been told to prune is what I’m seeing. Have a nice day and hope everyone gets a good harvest.
I heard grapes do a 7 year sabbatical but I don’t know if mine will yet. Does anyone know anything about this?

And new ground or a new home we go to should not be eaten from for 3 years to be sure the contamination’s if there are any are depleted. We eat organic so I do consider this.



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