#16 - Jun 2018 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
PRUNING GRAPES June: Winter. Pruning time...
Pruning is surgery so use clean, sharp, tools. A pruning wound potentially allows access to disease organisms. Prune in dry weather (wet encourages disease) and seal large wounds (house paint).
Recut broken shoots neatly (disease). Remove dead shoots (disease). Thin crowded shoots (disease). Remove crossing shoots - wind-rub knocks off the bark (disease).
Always cut just past a node or branch point. Never cut through a node or a branch-point ‘collar’ (disease). Never leave a long stump (disease).
Strategy: Pruning depends on species. Look on the net. Common plants pruned badly are grapes (this issue) and roses (next issue).
Grapevine structure: After its winter prune (June/July) a grapevine should have a gnarly vertical trunk and a permanent skeleton of 1+ gnarly horizontal cordons.
The cordons should each be tied to a support (wire, pergola etc). At intervals along each cordon are the spurs.
A spur is the bottom few cm of one of last season’s leafy shoot.
Maintenance: If your vine was well pruned last winter, all you do is cut off each of last season’s shoots. Make the pruning cut about 5 cm above where the shoot originated - i.e., remove just the top 95% of the shoot. The remaining stump of last season’s shoot should have 2 or 3 buds on it. This stump is the spur.
Each bud sits just above the scar left by a recently-fallen leaf. Next season, each bud, on each spur will give you a new green shoot, each with a cluster (or two) of grapes.
Young: If your vine is young, prune and train its new shoots to give it one vertical trunk and a number (1+) of well-spaced horizontal cordons. This will take 2 or 3 (+) years.
Always choose fat, fast-growing shoots over weak ones.
It’s important to tie the fragile new shoots to the support structure often (every 30 cm) or they will break in the wind. In Eastbourne, grape buds burst and grow around the equinox, our equinoctial winds do untold damage to tender young grape shoots.
Remove surplus shoots as they form.
Neglected: If your old vine is a tangled mess (very common) - don’t despair.
Make a drawing/diagram of what you have and mark on it which shoots to keep and which to remove, to end up with a single vertical trunk and 1+ horizontal cordons. Prune it back to this. You may have to remove a lot of wood...!
You may have been pretty cruel but the vine will fight back OK. Maybe no crop next summer but when pruning next winter it will be easy to establish spurs. It should fruit better and better each subsequent year. ___________________________________
PRUNING GRAPES June: Winter. Pruning time...
Pruning is surgery so use clean, sharp, tools. A pruning wound potentially allows access to disease organisms. Prune in dry weather (wet encourages disease) and seal large wounds (house paint).
Recut broken shoots neatly (disease). Remove dead shoots (disease). Thin crowded shoots (disease). Remove crossing shoots - wind-rub knocks off the bark (disease).
Always cut just past a node or branch point. Never cut through a node or a branch-point ‘collar’ (disease). Never leave a long stump (disease).
Strategy: Pruning depends on species. Look on the net. Common plants pruned badly are grapes (this issue) and roses (next issue).
Grapevine structure: After its winter prune (June/July) a grapevine should have a gnarly vertical trunk and a permanent skeleton of 1+ gnarly horizontal cordons.
The cordons should each be tied to a support (wire, pergola etc). At intervals along each cordon are the spurs.
A spur is the bottom few cm of one of last season’s leafy shoot.
Maintenance: If your vine was well pruned last winter, all you do is cut off each of last season’s shoots. Make the pruning cut about 5 cm above where the shoot originated - i.e., remove just the top 95% of the shoot. The remaining stump of last season’s shoot should have 2 or 3 buds on it. This stump is the spur.
Each bud sits just above the scar left by a recently-fallen leaf. Next season, each bud, on each spur will give you a new green shoot, each with a cluster (or two) of grapes.
Young: If your vine is young, prune and train its new shoots to give it one vertical trunk and a number (1+) of well-spaced horizontal cordons. This will take 2 or 3 (+) years.
Always choose fat, fast-growing shoots over weak ones.
It’s important to tie the fragile new shoots to the support structure often (every 30 cm) or they will break in the wind. In Eastbourne, grape buds burst and grow around the equinox, our equinoctial winds do untold damage to tender young grape shoots.
Remove surplus shoots as they form.
Neglected: If your old vine is a tangled mess (very common) - don’t despair.
Make a drawing/diagram of what you have and mark on it which shoots to keep and which to remove, to end up with a single vertical trunk and 1+ horizontal cordons. Prune it back to this. You may have to remove a lot of wood...!
You may have been pretty cruel but the vine will fight back OK. Maybe no crop next summer but when pruning next winter it will be easy to establish spurs. It should fruit better and better each subsequent year. ___________________________________