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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Grape pruning problem

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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Grape pruning problem
  • Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:33:03 -0700

Cut the vine back to the trunk or even to the ground. That will force old buds buried in the wood and you can re-train the structure of the vine with the new shoots. You may lose one season's crop, but that's all.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
Grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html View a short, low resolution clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q58zFY0B1M
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/

On Apr 12, 2010, at 2:02 PM, William C. Garthright wrote:

I've got a few grapes in the backyard, all doing well, but I've got a
problem with pruning one of my Concord grapevines. It's about five years
old, and I've struggled to get it pruned correctly every year. Well,
none of my grapes look like the pruning diagrams, but they seem to work
OK, and I get tons of grapes.

But this one ended up with two thick canes, one to the left and one to
the right, but lower than I wanted (about 4' high). I thought that,
eventually, something would sprout on or near the trunk, but instead, I
get these long, long canes sprouting out near the ends, and nothing on
or even near the trunk. So far, I've managed fine, but this year, it's
just ridiculous. There aren't any young canes or buds anywhere near the
trunk. The best I could do would be some elaborate loop-de-loop to keep
long canes in the space I've got for them.

The trunk is very thick by now, and the vine is VERY vigorous. It grows
multiple canes 12 ft. long (and it's not that far from neighboring
vines). I prune it like crazy every year, but it doesn't bud anywhere
near where I want it to bud (and in the rare times that it does, the
sprouts are generally pointing downward and don't survive long).

OK, last year, I left a LOT more canes than usual, just to see if I
could slow down some of its vigor. I got far more grapes than I could
handle (surprisingly, they were still pretty good), and it still grew
pretty strongly, but that might be why I didn't get more - or any -
sprouts near the center of the vine.

Any suggestions? I can still get plenty of grapes from the vine, but I'm
almost embarrassed to have it in my yard. Heh, heh. Good thing none of
my neighbors know anything about it. They probably think grapevines are
supposed to look this way! :-) But I'm going to end up with old
canes looping back and forth before finally getting to something that
gives me fruit. Admittedly, my other Concord vine looks kind of funny,
too, but nothing as bad as this.

Will grapes ever sprout from really old wood? How would you handle this?
None of my grapes really sprout the way the pruning diagrams show. I get
beautiful canes in all the wrong places. This is my oldest vine, so I'm
a little worried that my others will end up this way, too.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

--
In the 20th century, the GI Bill sent a generation to college, and for
decades, we led the world in education and economic growth. But in this
new economy, we trail the world's leaders in graduation rates and
achievement. - President Barack Obama

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