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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Grape pruning problem

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Grape pruning problem
  • Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:54:12 -0400

Lon's the expert, but I'll throw this in anyway: grapevines layer very easily, and Concords will usually grow fine on their own roots.

If you can't bear to cut the whole thing off and wait for it to sucker, as Lon describes, take one of those great long canes out at the ends of the arms; bend it down and bury part of it in the ground right next to the old trunk, (or anywhere you want a new grapevine); leave the end of the cane out of the ground, and tie that end up so it's where you want a new trunk.

You don't need to, or want to, bury it deep; just enough to hold it in the ground, or even lay it on the ground and put a big rock on it to hold it down.

The arm will root where it's in contact with the ground. Prune the parent vine back hard to encourage it to put energy into the new one, but leave some canes on it for the first couple of years, gradually reducing the amount of wood on the old vine as the new one grows. Train the new one as you want it, and, after two or three years, cut the old vine out.

Keep leaving some spurs back toward the center of the new vine every year as you prune it, to reduce the chances of finding yourself back in the same situation eventually.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale

On Apr 12, 2010, at 7:33 PM, Lon J. Rombough wrote:

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


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.










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