The vine requires special attention if you want to make it bear fruit. You can always let it grow as it pleases, but if you want to harvest beautiful grapes once fall comes, you will need to pay attention to certain key moments, including pruning. Find out when it is advisable to prune your vine.
Prune the vine in winter
To have beautiful clusters to collect, pruning must be carried out at the end of winter, after the severe frosts between January and March. At this time of year, the vines are in vegetative rest and all the sap has gone down. This pruning consists of selecting buds (also called eyes) which will be the most fertile. To recognize them, look for those that appear on one-year-old wood (the one that grew the previous year). The buds which will not bear fruit are those which grow in the axils of old wood (which is more than a year old) or from a branch already cut. You can eliminate them.
Can we prune the vine in spring?
Unlike winter pruning, spring pruning is not obligatory. This is a selection of the most promising bunches to give them plenty of room to grow and have a more qualitative harvest. It is advisable to keep only five bunches of grapes per branch and to cut as short as possible the branches which do not have any. Then water two to three times a week and, as soon as the grains begin to enlarge, protect them from diseases by wrapping them in a kraft paper bag.
What are the different types of pruning for vines?
The purpose of pruning is to promote the production of quality grapes, but there are several types. For the so-called goblet pruning, we leave three to five main arms (stems) ending in three to four buds. Cord pruning and Guyot pruning produce horizontal slats or arms.
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⋙ 6 unusual facts about grapes, the fruit of the vine
⋙ Planting a vine in your garden, 5 things to know
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