Grape vines should be pruned every year. Let’s look at how to prune grapes. How and When to Prune a Grapevine. Proper pruning will help maintain a grapevine’s potential of producing a good quality fruit crop, develop good vine structure, increase sunlight exposure into the canopy, promote the development of next year’s fruiting wood, and potentially reduce disease and insect pressure. Notes and observations During the fourth summer, my vines produced their first grapes. There are dozens, if not hundreds of different methods of training grapes, depending on the grape variety, the country of origin and even region, and whether you are growing table grapes or wine grapes. Regular pruning is essential for controlling grape canes and producing quality fruit yields. It happens and it will continue to happen even on experienced folks. Proper summer pruning will allow sunlight to penetrate through the leaves to improve the color of the grapes as well as controlling disease. Pruning grape vines isn’t something you do for cosmetic reasons. And it should be noted that summer pruning is not a one-off event. If you don’t prune your vines, you won’t get much fruit. Part of the series: Gardening: Pruning. Similar to human hair, the end product is healthier when it is trimmed regularly and on a schedule. Pruning an old, overgrown grapevine requires a form of severe pruning that removes about 90 percent of the plant’s total growth. Naturally, summer pruning of grapevines implies that your vines are mature enough to produce large bunches of fruit. "One of the main jobs of pruning is to tell the vine how many bunches of grapes you want it to produce and to ripen in the year," he said. Create spurs by pruning the stems to two buds. In the fourth winter, I started maintenance pruning, or selectively cutting back the stems. So here we will not talk about how you can become a perfect grape vine pruning master by just reading this. The basics of pruning vineyards are relatively simple. When the plant sprouts in the spring and grows a new shoot, that shoot turns from green to brown at the end of the growing season. Nope, things just don’t work like this, so let me be straight forward with you. When it comes to pruning grapes, the most common mistake people make is not pruning hard enough. Alex Moeller from the Oregon Wine Research Institute at Oregon State University gives a short lesson on best practices for pruning wine grape vines. Grape gardeners often become confused as to what should be pruned off and when. In order to grow the vines… one needs to cut them. Pruning allows air and sunlight to reach the inside of the vines, giving them the, sunlight, air flow and nutrition they need to thrive. Remove all other growth. It's important to prune young vines. Grape vines can prove a hard task for beginners, but this is nothing to be afraid of. To produce healthy wine grape clusters… pruning is a critical component in the growing process. Whether you are growing honeysuckle, clematis, or grapes, it's important to prune your vines regularly. Grapes should be pruned during their dormancy, usually in late winter. One of the common problems with homegrown grapevines is that they have far too many grapes, both in number of bunches and per bunch.This results in small fruit of low quality. The secret is to prune them hard every year, aiming to ensure your vine bears far fewer grapes than it’s capable of producing. How to Prune Grape Vines. Grape vines produce fruit on one-year-old wood, and that’s it – seriously. Training and yearly pruning your grapevines is crucial, otherwise you will end up with an overgrown entangled mess and a reduced harvest. To spur prune: Select 20 to 30 stems, which grew from the cordons (full number not shown here). How to Prune Old and Overgrown Grapevines. 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