tlouise: Everything you suggested is right on the money. The only change I made over the yrs is to forget the bottom wire. The vine won't grow well there and it really adds nothing to your system. Just go with the top wire. If you want a larger canopy put a T on the top. Yes you should cut off any fruit this yr. Not because it will permanently stunt your vine. Just because you won't get much fruit anyhow. Next yr you can leave some fruit if your vine is big enough. If your vines grow well enough this yr, you can form the canes on the top wire this yr. If those canes grow 6-8ft this yr you will have enough growth to leave some fruit next yr. If you don't form good canes on the top wire this yr you will be without fruit next yr. The Fruitnut

There are multiple ways to prune grapevines. Some recommend pruning down to leave only two buds per vine shoot, which will be where next year's growth will be. This method is great for wine grapes and encourage grapes for next year. Plenty of Youtube videos on it. However, Thompson Seedless do not respond well to this method. They will grow fantastic folliage, as you've seen, but will not produce much in the way of grapes. There is another method for pruning these. I believe it is called caning. Basically, from the trunk you count out the lateral runner (assuming you have it on a wire) and prune everything beyond the 3rd or 4th rising cane. You decide where based on the vigor of the rising cane. If the 3rd is vigorous, then it, if the 4th more so then it. If you end up messing up, you still have the 1st and 2nd to use. Once you have cut off the lateral, you then bend the rising cane down to the wire and tie it down to make a new lateral. Be gentle, and you may hear the wood crack a bit, but that should be ok. This is where the need for riser #1 and #2 may be necessary. Once you have it tied down, then prune the risers closer to the trunk as you would have the other method, leaving 2 buds. I couldn't find any videos on this, but if you search for grapevine pruning methods for Thompson grapes, you should find it. Apparently Thompson likes to put grapes on the vines from the upper buds only. Good luck! Dan

Almost in February so I am closer to the pruning time. I just want to make sure I am going to prune right, so I thought I would check in another time, offer some pictures and drop a possible bomb. Yes.. the neighbors adjacent to me would like to build a fence across their back yard, however the fence where my grape vines are hanging on the chicken wire would need to move out 3ft in the direction of the neighbors, so that they don't enclose my fruit trees in their yard (since I had planted my apple, cherry and peach trees on the outside of my fence). So now I really am worried I'm really going to screw up my grape production as the chicken wire has to come down and the grape 'trunks' and vine system needs to be swayed inward toward my back yard and trellised on wire. So here's what I have done so far. I freed the trunk vines out of the chicken wire (grew through it in places and would have had interrupted circulation in a couple years I suspect) and then tried to make sense out the tangled mess of vines with 1st, 2nd and 3rd year's growth (assuming I count the year I planted them as year 0.. like 7" tall sticks in 2007.. is that wrong?). The vines are more of less straightened and here's what I want to do.. The wood that is the lightest color at the tips of each arm is the summer 2010 wood, right? .. so I leave 30 buds on that for each arm I want to trellis, right? I bought 1/8" wire rope to thread through 2 sets of needle hooks I screwed in some 4"x8' posts I had already sunk in the ground. My idea is that I want to bend the vines from that back corner of the yard over to the right (as shown in these photos below). The arms of the vines will be attached to the two sets of wires that are 30" apart. Will this work? I realize I might be a bit unconventional, but my yard is truly cramped and if this works to get me good production, I'll be thrilled. My neighbor's house diagonally behind mine offers me no privacy, so I have thought of getting with my neighbor that has the welder in his garage, picking up some scrap metal and making a trellis to attach to the tops of the wooden posts, and then train some vines up there both for added production and screening of said neighbors. Nothing like them having a BBQ and looking uncomfortably in my back yard as the sweaty gardener has blackened hands and sweat pouring down his face. lol Here are the 'trunks' I have 2 plants, but all the compost and mulch I dumped over the last 4 years had caused the one plant on the left to split\root a few times looks like: From 01252011 This is just to the right of the trunks. Most of the vines are directed here, though I have a few really long ones on the right side out of the picture frame too. From 01252011 Here is where I am attaching the wire and directing those monstrous vines, so the wires will go from the trunks to the right and then make a right angle along the rear fence between those posts. From 01252011 Here is a shot of the whole setup: From 01252011 So please offer some recommendations of getting this thing in control without sacrificing much production. This will be the going into the 4th year of growth in the spring. Our lost frost date here is around May 5th I believe, so how long should I wait before I start pruning?

To get a good amount of fruit, you will need to prune the vines. I assume you are good at getting on a ladder every year and cutting it?