Grape Pruning
Knowing how to correctly prune grapes is one of the most important skills for caring for your vineyard.
Grape vines must be pruned once a year. Failure to prune will lead poor production as the vine will try to produce too much fruit and spread its energy out too thin.
The goal of pruning is to cut back on the number of buds so that the vine directs more energy and nutrients to the remaining buds, leading to more leaves, longer shoots, and bigger juicier grapes.
How To Choose The Best Time For Grape Pruning:
Grapes enter a natural dormancy period. The best time to prune is just at the end of this dormancy period and just before the first bud break. But you also have to pay attention to the weather and know your area. Pruning will advance the bud break. This is important to know because if you do this too soon, a sudden frost may damage your vines just as you’ve encouraged them to kick into high gear.
If you wait too late, after bud break, you risk damaging the fragile new buds and shoots. This will reduce your crop yield for the year.
So timing is everything. You will get better at timing this over time. The best strategy for knowing when to prune grapevines is to record the date of your first bud break every year for each vine and each variety. Keep a journal with this information and you will know when to expect it every year.
Click here for detailed information on exactly when and how to correctly prune grapevines.
