grape vine pruning

[Ve-Ve]

I have a black grape vine in my greenhouse which has produced loads of bunches this year but I am at a loss as to how to prune it Can anyone help

[snapdharlich]

Well, I know this isn't scientific, but we had exactly the same problem, my father ccouldn't stand the sight of the overgrown vine and asked me to just hack it back. I just went daft (this was at the start of the year). The bl**dy thing is worse than ever now. It's grown to twice the thickness of before and doubled the bunches. I understand that different varieties will react differently. They must be quite hardy. We also use one of those skylight temperature thingies. If it's cold, it closes the window and if warm it opens. We never water the vine, just leave it to it's own accord. This is in the north east of scotland with a fully glass greenhouse. Sorry if I'm no help.  

[Clanad]

Pruning encourages new wood to grow and the grapevine fruits only on new wood.  Pruning should thin out old non-productive wood and encourage the vine to put its energy into new fruiting wood.  When done correctly pruning allows the vine to have the proper amount of year old cane ready for the following spring�s production. I'm sure you've seen pictures of vineyard settings.  The vine is supported by wires on posts.  The main growth coming from the ground rising vertically to the support is the trunk.  This is then subdivided into two arms.  These arms then produce canes...and located on the canes are �buds� which are little nodes that give rise to the new wood on which fruit develops.

Pruning grapevines is done when the vines are totally dormant. Look at the arms mentioned above and selectively cut out canes, leaving about six inches between each. Prune every other cane so that there are about 10 to 15 buds per cane.  The alternate canes are then pruned to leave only two buds and now you will have one long cane and one short cane alternately. 

The real success in pruning is learning how much to prune and how much to leave.  It has taken me about 5 years to develop a feel for this technique, but does produce signifcant quantities of good grapes.  Good luck...

[KARL]

There is a black grape vine in our large greenhouse which is well in excess of 50 years old and it was already well established with branches reaching out in a supported fan across the whole of the roof. The growth comes out of clumps of canes some 50cm apart or so on each branch. Every year we have followed the advice given us 30 years ago and pruned all the canes back around January-time to within 2-3 buds of the base of the cane. We have had superb grapes from this vine.

[Ve-Ve]

Thanks everyone on the strength of all the advice we shall cut away and hope for another good crop next year