Why It Is Important To Prune Grapes
If you're growing wine grapes, pruning grapes is a necessary task. It doesn't matter whether you have a vineyard or your own little backyard vine. The finest grapes are those that come from vines that are carefully pruned. Like all plants, they need vigilant pest control and weeding as well. Often the vines have to receive diligent attention for three years before producing good grapes.
Pruning grapes is the method of removing undesired vine growth and supporting desirable vine growth so that the grape vines will use their nutrients to produce the strongest possible growth patterns with the best possible grapes. Pruning grapes ensures that the your vines will form in the proper shape in a sturdy, insect and weather resistant form.
It can take years before pruning will pay. But, pruning isn't the only preparation your grapevines will need. You too need a trellis for your vines to follow to gain the correct pattern. Ensure that each plant is just one strong shoot, tied to the trellis. You should cut off any other shoots.
Sooner or later, maybe after a time of little growth, your main shoot should have a couple shoots come out of it. You will want to tie these horizontally along the trellis, as they will develop into the main branches to support your grape clusters. During each and every time of slowed growth, you have to be pruning grapes to make sure they grow in the wanted directions. This pruning during slowed growth time periods must continue indefinitely.
To some degree, pruning grapes should be done according to the grape varieties you grow. For example, some hardier new hybrids have been produced to withstand disease and cold weather. They need bit of pruning because they don't usually have extra growths to prune throughout slowed growth periods. Pruning grapes like this is simply a matter of getting rid of spurs and fruiting canes from the past harvest. The grapes simply grow a new cane for each grape cluster during each growing period.
Pruning grapes can be a fragile process. If you prune too much, your vine may produce additional leaf shoots, which will in return will give too much shade for your grapes to properly ripen. If you don't prune enough, your grapes may not grow in desired patterns or on sturdy enough grapevines.
The tools of the skilled grapevine pruner are handsaws, hand pruners, and also loppers. Each must be used carefully to cut away excess growth, without inflicting any sort of injury to the plant. Because of this, hand pruners should not be used on shoots of more than a year old. Loppers and handsaws can offer a much cleaner trim on bigger shoots, which is important for disease protection and insect resistance.
Growing fine grapes begins with hard work to grow good grapevines. This work must continue for the duration of your grapevines. Fortunately, pruning grapes is one of the less complicated parts of this process. It is simply a matter of learning how to do proper pruning and spending time to do the pruning each year. The outcome will be fine grapes.