Aaacckkk. I was hoping everybody would agree on one method being superior. :) Derek, if you could take a picture that would be really helpful. Your directions were concise and specific, thank you so much. With that trellis stretching 35' how many grapes could I fit in it? I'm hoping I don't need two trellises, I plan to use the space beside it for berry bushes. Peachymomo, thank you for the link. Lots of good info there. My problem is when they try to describe various methods I get confused trying to decide which method is best. I just want The One True Way, lol. My plan is to only plant disease resistant varieties. It rains a lot here so I won't need to worry about rinsing the grapes. My neighbors don't have problems with mildew (in spite of the rain) so I think this must be a good area for grapes. I honestly don't care how it looks, I'm more interested in function.

Thank you Fruitnut, I think I have gained some clarity based on your response and on a couple of sites I found after my post. As a newbie to grapes I had no idea what buying a "3 yr old" grapevine actually meant. I was surprised that one site was selling vines in bunches of around 25 with the best prices if ordering a quantity of 50 or more. I was thinking I don't want to start a vineyard; I just want to grow grapes in my garden probably no more than my family actually consumes. The website also had a picture of the grapevines they sell with this excerpt: Grading Standards At our Vineyards 1 yr Extra - These are one year old vines that have made excellent growth the first year. Top growth is 12-18", and they have a heavy root system. 1 yr #1 - These vines are slightly smaller than 1-Extra vines, having 6-12" of top growth with a good root system to support the vine at planting. They represent the majority of the vines available. If I had received these vines in the mail I would have been like what the heck?!#@ and would certainly had been disappointed at the waste of 15.95 per vine. (not that this website asks that much for theirs but that is what I was looking at paying for a 3 yr old vine). I had to take my understanding of buying fruit trees back to the drawing board as a vine is definitely not a tree and though these plants are minuscule they are at least still a plant with roots; a lot of vendors are just selling cuttings I would then need to root myself. I then found a website that pictured more of what I wanted to know with this excerpt: Here is an illustration of two own root, (i.e. ungrafted) vines pruned ready for shipment. On the left is a one-year old and on the right a mature vine. Both types should be allowed a year to re-establish the root system which is pruned for shipment. Note that mature vines loose most of their feeding roots during lifting so they are best planted in November with mycorrhizal fungi applied to the roots to stimulate feeding root regrowth. In the spring, new growth should appear at several points on the head of the plant. Only those shoots required for the framework should be allowed to develop. The image on the left looks like a grape I purchased growing in a 1 gallon container last year from Lowes. The image on the right shows the benefit of getting a mature vine and based on their text I now understand why it will still require a year to bear fruit because most of the feeding roots are lost. I also understand (now) that a 3 yr old vine is only truly a 3 yr old vine if it is in its permanent location with root system intact. I now have a million more questions and questions for the vendor I decide to purchase from. Does the image on the right look better because, as the website says, It is a 3 yr old grape on its own root stock/ungrafted and does that mean I need to make sure the 3yr old grape I purchase is ungrafted if I want it to resemble the picture? This website suggested that it is best to plant a mature vine in November; am I too late to plant in January here in the southwest where it is kind of warm? Is there something I can do to speed the recovery of the feeding root regrowth so that there is the possibility of a small crop this year? The picture on the right is a cane with 2 shoots cut back to 2-3 buds per shoot if I have the terminology right. If I receive a plant like the pictured image, will I get vines on my 2 shoots this year and does that mean I will get 2 vines or closer to 6(a vine developing from each of the buds)???? Don't laugh, each one of you were a newbie at one point too :). My question for you experienced grape growers is what pruning method produces the most grapes? I at first only wanted 2 3 yr old grape vines to grow supported by a small trellis fence in my backyard as I don't have much space. Those two I would cane prune. After finding out that a will get very little fruit, if any, this year I am considering growing more vines and more varieties but I have very little space. If I add more vines to my order it will be 1 yr old vines that I would grow in a raised square foot garden bed with a trellis or as a container garden with a trellis. I understand that limiting the root depth will limit my fruit production. It looks to me like spur pruning produces more fruit than cane pruning so I was thinking that my extra vines that aren't directly ground planted could be spur pruned to offset a bit of the fruit loss from shallow roots. Do you think for those extra vines my pruning method will make a difference?

Granrey, sorry for the slow update, guess I haven't been on this site for awhile. In 2007 I got about 20 lbs from 3 vines, and this year's production must have been at least equal to that. But I got lazy this year so most of them still hang from the vines -- haha, maybe I should make ice wine now! I often ate a few when I was out in the back yard this fall, and I brought in a bowl for indoor eating, but that's about it. Last year's wine didn't really seem worth the effort, so I pondered making grape juice or grape jelly from the grapes but never got around to making either. Maybe next year I'll be more ambitious. I see some rabbits have made it into our back yard this winter, so I hope they help themselves to the grapes. Funny, the birds don't seem interested in the grapes.

Greetings: I do not grow wine grapes but I do grow Concord and Reliance grapes. When I have a young vine that sends up multiple canes in summer, I summer prune and remove all but one. Why let them grow til winter and prune when dormant? Wasted growth as better for the vine to put all its resources into the one cane you want so you can get it up to the trellis and trained as quickly as possible. I also summer prune on my older established grapevines as they put out way too much growth so I trim back some of the growth. I also trim off some leaves near the fruit clusters or I have a wall of foliage that is very hard to spray thru to get fungicides on the fruit clusters. I am growing mine on a 4- arm Kniffen system not cordon system but summer pruning should not harm the vine either way.