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Fruit & Orchards

need help with a 1st year grape vine

14 years ago

Hello. I have a first year vine and don't have a clue what to do next. Planted it against a fense in summer (July-I know probably late).

I've watched videos on how to train and trim it but still don't know how to do it.

It's about 4 feet tall. Right on top of the old vine (old wood) are coming out 2 new vines. At least I think they're new vines? Or are they just new shoots coming out right at the top??

Anyways, it's Oct. now and I have no idea what to trim or even when to prepare for the 2nd growing season?

Should I trim those to new vines (or shoots) coming out of the top of the old wood and leave the original vertical vine or just leave them and try to train them on the fence? Sounds confusing, I know.

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Comments (5)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
14 years ago
pommes: It just seems confusing at first. Grapes only bear on last yrs wood. And you are supposed to remove as much as possible of the two yr and older wood. Sounds impossible to leave the new wood and cut out the old. You will figure it out. Clue: You remove all of some canes, that gets rid of the old wood. Then each yr there are new canes arising near the crown. These are the ones you keep to fruit the following yr.

Back to your current situation. If the central cane is straight and strong, that will become your permanent trunk. Leave the other shoots for now. They can be cut out next spring. This will cause lots of canes to grow next yr from the crown (top of the trunk). If those canes grow enough next yr they can fruit in 2011, maybe 2-4 of them can. The others will be cut out spring 2011. After that you prune out old canes and keep a few new ones to fruit.

The Fruitnut
pommes
Original Author
14 years ago
I understand the confusion because I described wrongly, not even knowing Vine terminology.
Basically I do have a permanent trunk (about 4ft. tall) with 2 new canes coming out from the the crown (not much else growing below this) of the trunk.
They are coming out at the very top and actually higher now than the fence I wanted the Vine to grow along (vine is in high garden back with a low fence.
So, I should just leave these 2 new canes as the future fruit bearers? I'll try to train these 2 along the fence top.
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I have a few thoughts... I've tried cane pruning on a couple vines, and I couldn't tell any difference in the fruit quality or the yield so I abandoned the idea. I find spur pruning to be quicker and a lot simpler. In my opinion, either method is fine unless you are dealing with one of those few varieties that do no produce fruit on the first few buds. Dis-regarding those varieties, just go with what you know and what works for you. The only other reason I can see that cane pruning would be better is that buds with high light exposure usually produce more fruit. With cane pruning you can choose the canes that got the most light whereas with spur pruning your choices are very limited. We have plenty of sunshine here, so I don't see it as an issue, but in Oregon (not as much sunshine) it may be more important. I'm guessing the distinction between table and wine grapes is because, with wine grapes, you don't want high yield (many clusters are often dropped at veraison) so being a little less fruitful is no problem. I've visited several commercial vineyards here in Idaho. We have both table and wine grape vineyards in the area, and all that I have visited are spur pruning and producing very high quality fruit. I know that what is best for commercial growers is not always what is best for "backyard" growers, but in this case, it does show that spur pruning is commercially viable (at least in the Snake River Valley). Fruitnut, I think it was you who, a couple of years ago, advised me to visit the U of I research facility. I'm really glad you did, I got some vines (cuttings) from them and learned a lot about viticulture and fruit growing in general. Thanks for the suggestion.
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backyardener
14 years ago
Sounds like you have the right idea. If you have a strong, straight trunk and 2 canes that grew this year, you should get fruit next year. You definitely want to train those new canes horizontally along the fence (hopefully it is not a solid fence and will allow for airflow, which grapes require).

Don't trim anything now, the best time to prune grapes is in the spring just before the buds break. This year you will want to trim off everything but the trunk and the 2 canes. The following year, you will want to leave 2-bud spurs (if you spur prune) or lay down new canes (if you cane prune). This is important because you get fruit only from 1 year old wood. I've attached a pretty good link with pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grape Growing
backyardener
14 years ago
I should add that, if the new canes are too weak (general rule is pencil-thick) then you might be better off trimming them back to 2 buds next spring and growing new canes to fruit in 2011 as fruitnut suggests. You could probably get a cluster or two in 2010 even if you trim them back.
pommes
Original Author
14 years ago
thanks much everyone.

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