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Pruning tips for grapevines
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[DEC.
28, 2004]
URBANA -- As winter
approaches, the time to prune grapevines takes a place on a home
gardener's agenda, said a University of Illinois Extension
horticulture educator. |
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"Pruning is the removal of canes,
shoots and other unwanted vegetative parts on the grapevine," said
Maurice Ogutu. "Grapes are pruned in late winter before the buds
break. The objectives of pruning are to maintain the vine in a
desired shape and form to facilitate vineyard operations, ensure
exposure of leaves to full sunlight, maintain productivity by making
sure that the vine bears only the crop it can support and nourish,
and to direct the growth of the vine into its permanent arms that
will bear berries in the future."
Ogutu noted there are two aspects of
grape pruning.
"The first one is to come up with a
desired shape for the vineyard so that the vines can be arranged on
a trellis," he said. "This occurs during the first, second and third
year of dormant pruning and is also a factor in pruning neglected
vines.
"The second type of pruning is to
control the size and quality of berries, which is done on plants
more than 3 years old."
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Pruning of grapevines involves
removal of dead and broken wood and removal of last year's
fruiting arms that bore berries, as the 2-year-old wood is not
productive.
"Grape fruits are borne on
1-year-old vines," he noted.
It has been observed that canes
growing outside the canopy are more fruitful because the buds have
full exposure to sunlight, he added.
"Select 1-year-old canes with darker
colors and pencil-thick diameter as fruiting arms," he said. "The
number of buds or nodes retained on such canes depends on the vine
size and vigor, but it is generally between 10 to 15. It is
advisable to leave short renewal spurs with about three nodes closer
to the trunk to produce replacement arms for the following year.
"Remove all the suckers arising from
the ground around the trunk, and other canes except the selected
arms and renewal spurs. Cut the selected vine to a desired length
and tie it on a wire trellis."
[University of Illinois news
release]
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