Growing grapes in your backyard can be a rewarding experience, and a fence, arbor, or any sturdy structure can act as a trellis to support your grapevines. A crucial aspect of How To Care For Grape Plants and ensure they produce healthy fruit for many years is winter or spring pruning. Many new grape growers are often taken aback by the extent of pruning required, with 80-90% of new vine growth typically removed each winter in commercial vineyards. This rigorous pruning is essential because grapes develop on new shoots, not on older branches.
The specific method for pruning grape plants depends on your chosen growing style and available space. However, the general principle involves pruning grapevines to maintain 1-2 main trunks, 2-4 cordons (woody arms), and bud-containing spurs that will produce fruit in the upcoming season. Fences offer an excellent support system for grape plants. Alternatively, vines can be trained to a single stake in the ground, or, if you have an arbor or pergola, grapevines can be grown overhead to provide shade. If shade is your primary objective, less pruning may be necessary compared to growing grapes for fruit production. For maximizing high-quality fruit yields, cultivating grape plants on a basic trellis or fence in a sunny location is recommended. It’s important to remember that flowers and fruit emerge from buds that developed in the previous year. Therefore, the goal of pruning is to stimulate new growth while maintaining a balance.
Year One Grape Plant Care: Establishing a Strong Foundation
In the first year of grape plant care, the pruning process remains consistent regardless of your intended training method. The primary focus is on fostering a robust root system and a straight, strong trunk. After the first growing season, your dormant vine will likely exhibit one or more main canes, along with thinner lateral canes branching off them.
- Select the 1-2 most vigorous main canes and prune away the rest. Remove all lateral canes branching from the chosen main cane(s).
- Securely tie the selected cane to a stake or fence to encourage vertical growth.
- Trim the top of the main cane to stimulate lateral shoot development in the following season. The amount to remove depends on the cane’s health; prune back to a point where the cane is approximately pencil-diameter and the buds appear plump and healthy.
Grape Plant Care After Year One: Shaping for Fruit Production
During the second summer and subsequent years, train lateral shoots onto your trellis or fence, guiding them to grow horizontally along both sides of the trunk. Once the trunk reaches your desired height and the lateral cordons (arms) are established, annual winter or early spring pruning before the growing season begins becomes a key aspect of ongoing grape plant care.
- Remember, fruit is produced on the current season’s growth, which originates from the previous season’s wood.
- For optimal fruit production, heavy pruning is beneficial.
- Light pruning can lead to abundant yields but often of lower-quality fruit.
- For table grapes, juice grapes, and jelly grape varieties, aim for 40 to 60 buds per vine after pruning. Wine grape varieties, however, should be pruned more heavily, leaving only 20 to 30 buds per vine.
Reviving Neglected Grape Plants: Restoring Order
If you’ve inherited overgrown grape plants, don’t be discouraged. Neglected grape plants can often be revitalized with proper care. Pruning old, neglected vines should be done gradually over a few seasons to return the vine to a single trunk structure with well-positioned canes. Prune while the vine is dormant, ideally just before new growth emerges in the spring.
In cases of extremely overgrown vines or excessive dead wood, a drastic approach can be effective: cut the entire vine back to a few inches above the ground. This encourages the growth of new canes (suckers) from the base, allowing you to essentially regrow the grapevine from scratch, which is a surprisingly common and successful rejuvenation technique.
Even when retaining some older growth is preferred, initiating a new trunk and eventually removing the old one once the new trunk is well-established is advisable:
- Select a vigorous new trunk from the canes growing at the base of the vine.
- Prune the chosen new trunk back to the desired height.
- Select two canes on each side of the new trunk to bear fruit in the current season and tie them to the trellis as they grow. If lateral canes are absent, wait until the following season to choose two new shoots to become cordons, removing any lower shoots.
- Remove the majority of the old, overgrown wood. Be prepared to remove a significant amount of old growth.
- Continue regular pruning and training practices as you would with a newly planted vine.
By following these grape plant care pruning guidelines, you can ensure healthy, productive vines for years to come, whether you are starting with a new plant or revitalizing an older one.
