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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: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:47:59 -0400


On Apr 13, 2010, at 11:05 PM, William C. Garthright wrote:


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,...


Thanks for the replies - both of you!

You're right, I can't bear to cut the whole thing off, though I'll keep
that in mind. And although this would work, too, it's pretty much
starting over with a new grapevine (although I'd get the use of the
current one in the meantime).

Well, that's pretty much what you do, every once in a while. A grapevine suited to the climate it's in is pretty close to immortal; but the individual trunks aren't, they eventually need to be replaced with new trunks (though less frequently with something as sturdy as Concord than with some more tender varieties). If you cut the old trunk off, suckers will appear from the rootstock, which is what Lon was suggesting. What I suggested allows you to continuously have a vine in the same place; and, as the original rootstock will be feeding the cane while it puts more roots down, you're essentially replacing it with itself if you use that layering technique.

Many growers keep two trunks going at once, one of them younger than the other, to make the switchover easier. As the older trunk accumulates damage, or as it gets gradually harder and harder to find any good wood near the center despite leaving spurs, you bring up a new sucker from the roots (or just above the graft it it's a grafted vine) to provide a new second trunk, and cut the oldest one out.

I imagine that I've been leaving too many buds

Almost everybody who has to teach themselves how to prune leaves way too many buds. When you first prune a grapevine properly, it feels like you're murdering it.

However, if the vine you're talking about keeps putting on thick 12 foot long canes that are vigorous enough to survive the winter all the way out to the end of the cane, it's possible that you're actually not leaving too much on this one. Underpruned vines are more likely to put on a lot of narrow, short canes that don't ripen the wood at the ends enough for it to make it through the winter.


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







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