If you want to plant grape vines in the garden, you need to be aware of the maintenance requirements. This includes pruning, for example.
Regular pruning is necessary not only in the vineyard, but also in the home garden to train the vines. They not only influence the shape, but also promote growth and crop yield. However, you must also clip the fruit-bearing wood in the correct place. Many hobby gardeners are unsure about this point. They don't know how much and when to cut.You can basically harvest delicious grapes without cutting them. However, by cutting, you also protect the plants from fungal diseases (reading tip: Diseases of grapevines - 3 diseases). That's why you should know all the pruning variants for vines.
How to cut grapevines correctly
» the main cut:
It is best to make the main cut in March. However, you should only prune once the vine is established and properly trained. Then cut the fruitwood as close to the old wood as possible. You should leave about two centimeters of the branch behind the last bud.
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Important:
The tool must always be sharp and absolutely clean when cutting. This will prevent the shoots from being crushed. Furthermore, you always start the cut at an angle so that any escaping blood cannot reach the buds underneath.
» the winter cut:
You should carry out the winter cut at the beginning of March at the latest, but preferably in February. If you take care of the cut later, the plant sap has already risen into the shoots, which could then lead to "bleeding out". And this in turn weakens the plants enormously.
When pruning in winter, the thin, long shoots from the previous year are cut off. These are usually reddish-brown or slightly yellowish in color. Cut back these shoots to four buds. Five to seven of the thick shoots from the previous year must always be left overremain to form a scaffold. These are marked, the rest cut off at the next thick shoot. There shouldn't be any cones left. If you have pruned the vine in this way, only about a tenth of the original vine is left.
For fine trimming, you should shorten all other shoots in the lower area to two to three buds. Simply leave the upper shoots unchanged. If there are wild shoots on the old wood, remove them as well.
» spring eruption:
By spring the new shoots will have grown up to 30 cm long. Then it's time for the so-called breakout. At this time, laypeople can still see what exactly needs to be removed. Grasp the shoots in question at the base and simply tear them out very carefully. It may be necessary to pull out a few more shoots in the coming months.
In any case, you have to break out the water shoots and those shoots on which no flowers can be seen. However, a new shoot near the trunk must be preserved. If several shoots come out of a bud, you should only leave the one that has the most fruit buds.
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» the summer cut:
Pruning in summer is only necessary if you value well-tended espaliers or if you grow particularly high-quality table grapes in the garden.
There are very fast-growing grape varieties that develop a large number of long shoots, especially in the first few years. That's fine at first, but eventually the vine simply has too many leaves. By shortening, however, the vine will form more stinging shoots, which can then become very long. If the vines are still young, you should leave them standing. You should only remove them from older plants.
If you do without the summer pruning, the vines will become bushier. So if you want a nice trellis, you should prune in the summer. In addition, you then have much less work with pruning in winter.
To allow the sun to reach the grapes better, you should also take this opportunity to remove leaves covering the grapes. However, it is important that you do not remove too many leaves, otherwise you could get sunburned. By defoliating the grape zone, you can also prevent a mold infestationprevent the fruit from drying out more quickly in damp weather.
» the taper cut:
A vine can grow very old. But if you don't make a pruning for a rejuvenation, the yield will eventually stop. Every few years, therefore, it is rejuvenated to an upright water shoot close to the trunk. If you shorten this shoot, new fruit shoots will grow from the remaining buds.
» the thinning section:
If a vine has diseased leaves or a large number of weak or even dead shoots, a pruning is required. However, this is usually only the case with vines that you have not tended regularly before.
It is best to prune at the beginning of March, when the plant has no leaves yet. First, shorten the thick trunk arms. If their number is very high, you should remove a few of them completely. You then have to remove a large part of the thin side shoots so that only a few woody shoots from the previous year remain on the trunk structure.