6 replies to this topic

[Joel]

Some of my vines are doing much better than others, due to the amount of growth last year, and how I pruned them back. I have a few that are already out of the growtubes, with some small grape clusters on them. Do I need to prune these off so the vine can grow that much hardier, or can I leave them on so I can actually eat some grapes this fall. Also, should I have all side vine growth pruned so all growth is focused on the first training wire? thanks much, photos to come soon...

cheers,
joel

[NEB]

Hi Joel...I will see if i can help you out here based on what you have told me.

It sounds like you have two year old vines, eh? You should be able to put a small crop on those. Sounds like table grapes eh? I don't know about table grapes, but I crop my second year old wine grapes- about eight clusters per vine. Four on each side. Assumming the cane from which your new shoots are arising from is at least as thick as the width of a pencil, it should be able to carry that fruit.

Also....If your vines grew very vigorous last year, and have a very thick trunk and tie down canes, then you could easily leave even more fruit, (12-14 clusters). This may actually be good for the vines, to help slow them down. Otherwise you will end up with a bunch of bull canes for next year. Not good.

If you are satisfied with the trunk shape, and height, then yes, disbud every thing below the fruiting wire. UNLESS----and a big unless......you are going to cane prune. In which case you will want to leave a couple of nodes/shoots just below the fruiting wire. This will help keep next years cane where it needs to be to tie down next year.

Good luck and let me know if this helps.

[NEB]

Oh yeah....one more thing....you can always return and cut fruit off if you do not like the way things are going. But once you cut it off, you cant put it back. Catch my drift?

[NEB]

Joel....I was assuming you had already established your trunks (last year), as well as fruiting cane.

I was re-reading your thread and it sounds like you may not have your trunks established yet, and that your new growth is starting from the bottom. ??? However, if your flower custers are above the grow tubes, then you must have at least a partial trunk. ????

In which case things are a little different. You can still leave a couple of clusters, but the most important thing is to get your trunks established, secured to the fruiting wire, and to hopefully ensure good usable cane for next year, (small internode length, good positioning etc.)

It is difficult to give advice with out a clearer picture. And
I probly just confused you more. But, I have pruned thousands of vines, (16,000 +) I will try to help you more if you have any more questions.

[Joel]

I'll try to get a photo soon, so you can see what I'm talking about. Thanks though.
joel

[Joel]

I have some of the vines doing well, growing out of the tubes, and toward the training wire. I also have some that are just reaching the tops of the grow tubes and they have excess growth inside the tubes. SHould I trim those leaves, vines back to focus the growth straight up and leave the leaves on the vine outside of the grow tube? Did I confuse anyone here?

:blink:

[NEB]

Hi Joel....that depends. If we were into July and your growth was all lateral, I would say yes, cut off all of the laterals to stimulate one nice straight trunk. However, we have all summer to get the height out of that trunk. I would wait and see which shoot does the best and how fast it grows, and then look them over mid summer. You may not need to do your deselecting until next spring.

If you channel the energy too much, too early, you will end up with a bull can for a trunk, which will work fine, it just presents some other challenges.

Nutshell...let them go for now and see what they look like in a month.

Or, de-lateral a couple to experiment.

Hope this helps.