I have a few grape vines that are growing out of control. I would like to prune them back but don't want to sacrifice fruit for this season. Any ideas of what I should do?
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2 Answers
Cut any green shoots with no grapes, flowers or buds. New bunches won't appear at this stage.
Pluck all leaves growing below the bunches.
Do not cut woody branches until winter dormancy, as water loss from the wounds could kill the plant.
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3And when winter dormancy comes, cut a LOT. Fruit forms on new shoots, and proper grapevine pruning looks incredibly severe if you are not familiar with it. There are many available books on the subject.– EcnerwalCommented May 16, 2016 at 15:23
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@jbcreix what is the rationale for plucking leaves below the bunches and if I do that the grape vine won't have too many leaves right?– JStorageCommented May 16, 2016 at 20:19
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Maintenance to optimize grape production. They don't feed the grapes and they do block ventilation which can encourage fungi and pests. New leaves should be appearing past the bunches. If they aren't there now, it can probably wait until the plant has recovered from the thinning.– user10810Commented May 17, 2016 at 4:05
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@jbcreix what do you mean by pluck all leaves growing below the bunches? I thought you meant leaves between the fruit and the roots. Or did you mean leaves beyond the fruit that grew after the fruit appeared?– JStorageCommented May 17, 2016 at 4:42
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1Between the fruit and the roots, that's how I learnt it, but I can see commercial vineyards are a lot more conservative. articles.extension.org/pages/59399/leaf-removal-on-grapevines . Basically you only remove a few leaves around the bunches. You should still leave the tips beyond the grapes alone.– user10810Commented May 17, 2016 at 6:41
Just cut long branches, e.g. to the 7 or eight leaves. This is a usual summer pruning work on commercial vineyards.
Only leaves near a grape will help the grape, and the flowers/grapes after the first series (sort dependent, usually after the fourth leaf) will not ripen (and the grapes are usually small).
answered May 17, 2016 at 10:40
