Hello!

I've been doing some searching and reading up on pruning grapes. It all makes sense... IF you're starting with nice, new plants. I'm dealing with old, overgrown, crazy vines that have been in place at least 7 years. I saw some baby grapes the summer of '03, a few months after I bought the house, which apparently ripened when I was on vacation. Haven't seen any fruit since since.

I've got some ideas, and I was hoping for some feedback or tips.

This is what the vines look like when I haven't done much to them:

{{gwi:122541}}

For the past few years, I get alarmed at this tangle as it starts overtaking nearby trees and telephone poles, as well as growing over the gate to effectively tie it shut. I start wacking at it with pruners and getting this:

{{gwi:122542}}

After reading up on pruning, I decided to try cutting down a section to make it look something like the pictures I was seeing. However, it's pretty insane, too with super-long twists at the top, trunks going nearly horizontal out of the ground, and so forth:

{{gwi:122543}}

Should I just wack it all down like that (or even further, given the early horizontal growth along the ground, like near that plastic bag in the picture), then keep up with heavy pruning according to what I've seen online? While I don't know if I should be cane pruning or spur pruning, I figure I can try both and see which works best.

Thanks!