North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["road's end farm" <organic101@linkny.com>]

On Saturday, September 7, 2002, at 10:23  AM, Thomas Olenio wrote:
> 4) Once harvested, when should grapes vines be pruned for the next 
> season
> (fall, early winter, late winter, spring)?

They can be pruned any time from late fall (after most of the leaves 
have dropped) to budbreak. Commercial growers with a lot of acreage 
start early and prune all winter. As you only have a few vines, I'd 
prune them in late winter to early spring; before the buds swell 
significantly, but after you have some idea how much damage a possible 
bad winter has done. That way you can compensate for a bad winter by 
leaving extra wood, or for particular damaged canes by leaving other 
ones instead.

> 5) I got about 11-12 lbs of grapes from 3 vines, 3 years old.  Will this
> increase with time?
I don't know your specific varieties; but I would expect so, at least 
until they're about five years old.

--Rivka Davis