Pruning Grape Vines
For beginners, pruning grape vines is always a little scary. What if you prune too little and you end up with a mess of vines strangling one another, or you prune too much, don’t have any new buds, and kill the vine? Well, to start with, the task of pruning grape vines is not all or nothing--there is room for error, and the chances of you killing the plant are pretty unlikely.
If you don’t prune your plant you can be assured it will produce less fruit and in a couple years, stop bearing fruit all together. So there are not too many ways you can fail by pruning grape vines each year. The fruit grows on the shoots that are produced by one-year-old canes, so each year the previous season’s growth needs to be cut back.
Most gardeners use what is called 30-10-10 system when pruning grape vines. This begins by first pruning off dead or diseased canes or excessive canes. Then you need to weigh the number of one-year-old canes you have pruned off. This can be done on any type of scale that can weigh accurately. The 30-10-10 formula means that for the first pound of wood you leave thirty buds on the plant. Then for every additional pound of wood you pruned off, you leave ten buds on the plant. The canes you left should be about pencil thickness and very healthy looking.
Another method of pruning grape vines is called spur pruning. This type of pruning is used when there are two long branches left on the trunk of the vine, one on each side, starting about five feet off of the ground. Spurs, or growths on which there buds, are spaced out about six inches apart across the entire length of the branches (properly called cordons) on the grape vine. These spurs should be pruned to have only 2-3 buds on each one. The renewal spurs (leaf joints) are pruned to one bud each year.
Not many tools are needed for the successful pruning of grape vines. The basic three necessities are hand pruners, loppers and a small handsaw. The hand pruners are used the most from year to year as it is the best tool for pruning off the one-year-old wood. Wood that is older than one year will be thicker and will require loppers. A handsaw is only needed if you have to remove an old trunk that not producing and/or is diseased or dead. Sometimes it is good to cut some colored pieces of string to attach to the wood you have chosen to remove so there is no mistake made when it is time to prune.
Whichever method of pruning grape vines you choose, cane or spur, be sure to be consistent with it year after year. That way your grape vines will always be healthy and fruitful.