Knowing When To Prune Grape Vines – The Key To Grape Growing Success
While growing grapes at home can be a rewarding experience, most beginners, unsure of how or when to prune grape vines, skimp on performing this most important task. Most viticulturists would agree that this is the single most critical part of growing superb fruit. If you neglect vigorously pruning your vines, it won’t really matter what what else you do to care for them – you won’t like the crop of bitter, undersized grapes you will harvest. To enjoy plump sweets grapes you grow yourself, pruning your grape vines correctly must be high on your grape growing “to do” list.
Precisely what makes quite a few new backyard grape growers uneasy about when to prune grape vines is uncertainty over the amount they are advised to trim them back. Grape vines must not be trimmed at all the very first year while they are becoming established. However, from the next year, your vines will need to be reduced 85 – 90%. It can be intimidating for the beginner to drastically cut grape vines back this way, but this should be done if your vines are to bear usable fruit. Realizing just how grapes grow may help get the new grape vine grower through this crucial step.
Grapes grow on new growth off of year old canes. By simply trimming heavily once annually, you will always have a good source of this new fruit bearing growth on your vines each season. Understanding when to prune grape vines, sticking to that once every 12 months plan, and trimming them back the advised amount will let your first exposure to growing grapes at home be a rewarding and delicious one!
When you recognize when to prune grape vines and do it on schedule, you will enjoy the fruit they will bear in about 4 years. However, if you would like swifter success, Growing Grapes At Home’s grape growing system can help you manage your grape vines so that they bear fruit in only 2 years! This is the best resource I have found for growing grapes no matter where you live, what type of grapes you grow, or how much experience you have growing or pruning them.
