How to cut grapes in autumn and spring

Pruning a vine is an important step that determines a good fruiting plant. This process is simple, but some rules must be followed in order to get a great harvest. How to cut grapes?

Why and when are they cut?

We can prune the grapevine in many places, but regardless of the method used, in order to have good results, you need to follow some rules. Immediately it should be said that any pruning of the vine during the growing season or dormancy will have a depressant effect on the plant.

But if you allow the vine to grow annually to 5 m in length, it will have to feed all these meters until the very end of the branch, where the bunch of grapes is located. Therefore, at the end of the vine the amount of nutrients will be very limited, and the grapes will be too small and not juicy.

The size of the vine is crucial, as it limits the number of branches without fruit and allows you to fully eat grapes. And although with this approach, the length of the vine is reduced in size, it will grow better and more vigorously at the cut point than it would have been left unchanged. In other words, the pruning method allows you to form the structure of the vine.

In addition, pruning grapes helps maximize sunlight access to the clusters, improves foliage and fruit aeration, and also minimizes the effects of fungal diseases on the plant. Ideally, the vines should be oriented along the north-south axis.

There are two suitable seasons for pruning grapes: late autumn and early spring. Spring pruning has one major drawback. At this time of year, the plant starts sap flow and decreases the ability of the vine to restore fresh slices. In this regard, many gardeners believe that the ideal time for pruning a vine is late autumn, as close as possible to the first snow. During this period, the vine is at rest, and sap flow is stopped.

Grapevine Trimming Technique

For work we will need garden shears or pruners, as in the photo, as well as sticky colored tape to mark the cut points on the vine selected for trimming.

Autumn pruning

To properly cut the grapes in the fall, you need to adhere to the following simple recommendations:

1. We are only interested in the main stem of the vine, which comes from the ground from the root. All the rest we will trim.
2. On the main trunk, you need to choose four branches - shoots. We will leave them for the next harvest. The strongest and most viable shoots should be selected, which in the spring will begin to develop rapidly and, by fruiting, they will be able to keep under the weight of the grapes. To avoid mistakes, when you start cutting, tape each of the four branches of interest to you.
3. All the extra vines that are not of interest to us are cut off by the shears not at the base, but at a distance of one centimeter from the main stem.
   
4. The remaining four branches are pruned so that there are no more than two or three buds on each side of the main trunk.

Note that when harvesting grapes in autumn, the wood of the vine will dry during the winter. Therefore, as a precautionary measure it is necessary to cut off the shoots, departing one centimeter from the trunk. Thus, only the tip of the slice will dry out, not the inside of the main stem. You must be sure that the main trunk will retain its vitality until spring.

Although some varieties of grapevine are very resistant to cold, in our climate zone for the winter it is better to put it on the ground. Thus, the snow cover will serve as insulation from severe weather conditions. In the spring, the trunk and the shoots left after trimming are tied to the base supporting the entire shrub.

Crop grapes in spring

How to prune grapes in spring? It's simple: when pruning, two elements are retained: a long branch with 5 or more buds. These are fruit bowls that will carry most of the future harvest. This branch is attached to the horizontal trellis. And the grape branches from this shoot will be tied to vertical trellis, the distance between which is 30-40 centimeters.

The second element is a trimmed branch with two buds. Thus, the replacement of the main bearing trunk is formed. There will also be two shoots that will tie up to the vertical trellis. It is important that the replacement be trimmed closer to the stem of the vine to minimize the annual expansion of the framework.

What to do with the old plant?

There are vineyards that are over 100 years old, so the concept of "old" is relatively for this plant. In addition, bushes older than 50 years are considered even more viable, since they already have a strong root system, which allows to tolerate drought and cold well.

In order to properly prune old grapes in spring, you must perform the following steps:

1. Remove all dried branches.
2. Then we remove the shoots that grow on the base of the old vine. We reserve only annual shoots whose diameter is not less than 6 mm, and also with the presence of 5 or more live buds and more.
3. We prune shoots that meet the requirements, leaving at least 3 buds on each. These are the buds that will be the most fertile and will give grapes.
4. Cut the extra shoots in such a way that the remaining ones are evenly distributed along the entire length of the old vine - from about 4 to 5 shoots per two meters trellis.
5. Over the years, it is necessary to renew the vine, removing the oldest shoots and allowing new ones to grow.

Tips experienced winegrower

A balance must be maintained between vegetative growth and grape production. An excessively vigorous vine produces few and low-quality fruits, unlike the one that bears excessive load from the grapes. From year to year it weakens and eventually dies. Our task is to trim the load on the vines by trimming.

If very good shoots have developed from the buds left from last year, this means that the vine can bring a great harvest. We will have to leave more buds for the next circumcision. Conversely, if the branches of the previous year vary in size and are much thinner, this is a sign that the vine has produced an excess crop. Therefore, it will need to be trimmed shorter this season or leave the same number of buds, but remove the inflorescences to allow the branch to recover its carbohydrate stores.

Do not be afraid to start pruning your favorite bush, because the only way you can gain experience that will help you control the size of the vine and get an excellent harvest from it.