When to prune grape vines

[Ann E. James (Morgan)]

I have enjoyed this group for about a month now, but this
is my first posting.

I have a grape vine, white "seedful" variety. My neighbor
planted it for me about 3 years ago. This is the first
season we have had a crop.

My question is when do I prune it and how. It has quite
a short stock ane branches out like a nut. I would like
to get the stock a bit taller, and not have it go quite
so wild. Can it be trimmed during the growing season or
should I only cut the branches when I am pruning?

Thanks in advance.

Ann

[Mike Langston]

ann james (morgan) asks:

> I have a grape vine, white "seedful" variety. My neighbor
> planted it for me about 3 years ago. This is the first
> season we have had a crop.
> My question is when do I prune it and how.

as a rule of thumb, the best time to prune is late winter/early spring

if you want top-notch grapes and healthy vines, there's really quite
a bit to successful grapevine pruning, and to the intimately related
subject, trellising -- depends too on whether you have a cultivar
better suited to cane or spur pruning

from what you said, yours could be niagara, which usually gets cane
pruning on a kniffen trellis -- professional growers often weigh
cuttings to balance plant vigor against production (can't lay my
hands on the formula right now, but i often cheat anyway and just
leave 12 buds on each of 4 producing canes, plus 2 buds on each of
4 renewal canes)

the less you've overburdened the vines with too much fruit this
summer (a common mistake), the better they are likely to stand the
winter and produce well for you next year

as usual, your local extension service should have plenty of
relevant pubs -- read read read :)

--
mike langston <lang...@cs.utk.edu>
department of computer science, university of tennessee