Grapes

I was out pruning my grape vines today, where it is cold and windy outside. It is
the perfect time to prune the grapes as they have gone dormant for the winter
although some new buds are peeking through. I imagine they are sleeping, and
cutting them is like cutting someone under anesthesia. They don’t feel a thing.
I wasn’t out there very long, and I haven’t given these grapes a winter prune
in the four years I have had them, yet it seemed more like a final detailing
than an intensive job. Now going on my 5th summer with the grapes I
expect to get the same incredible harvest that I did last year.

I didn’t know how or what to prune at first. I was a bit pensive about my
first cuts; my methods had to be a bit different than a vineyard’s. First off my
grapes are 8 and in some places 9 feet off the ground. They are not attached to
horizontal wires. And my first canes (branches coming off the core vine or central leader) are
not tired at 6-inches.

There are a myriad of wild grapes behind my house in the woodlands surrounding. They grow up with the trees. Young grape vines on boarders of the forest grow at
the same rate as young saplings. Normally the tree is well established, enough for
the grapes to trellis on them. So at 4-years old when the tree is hitting its
prime growing age; the grapes at 2-years old are mingling with its branches.
The tree is already six feet tall and next year it will grow to at least 8.
Grapes grow fast, a couple feet a year easy. The tree will get less light and
slow down its growth because of them, but the vine won’t kill it. If it were
going to kill the tree how could there be grapes at 40, 50, some even 60 feet
up in a tree with no branches to climb on lower than 20? This brings me to
an important point; please discourage people from cutting wild grape vines in
trees. They are an important food source for birds and other wildlife. The tree
will be fine I promise.

Now back at the vineyard they have cut their vines down to the spur, this is just a fancy term for the place on the stem where new cane shoots will appear. With the cutting all the previous year’s growth and energy is lost. Yes, new wood is fruiting wood, and pruning like this may help you control the vines growing habit, but what about the grapes needs? I just give some of the control back to the plant. It is higher up like it might be in a young tree, and gets to grow towards the sun. I just didn’t decide to grow my grapes on living trees, but you could.

Pruning is an art, let’s not all be minimalists. Not in the sense that we should all
have spur pruned grapes anyhow. I am a minimalist when it comes to cutting
things off. I guess I should explain that this summer I was heavily involved
with these grapes. You see I have four of them all growing in the same place,
along with the wild grapes around them in the woods. The leaves were thick from
all that non pruning that I did. This combination coupled with a mild winter
last year, made ideal conditions for an outbreak of black rot. This is where
all the pruning began.

Prune dead wood and in the case of having a fungal infection burn it or bury it. Relieve the vines of canes growing under other vines where leaves are partially or fully shaded, more aggressively with a fungal infection. Fungus travels from leaf to leaf in water droplets during rain events. There is a short incubation period, if the leaf dries off well enough before that time the fungus will not take hold. Giving the leaves proper ventilation is key. I believe I read that there are anti-fungal properties in pine smoke, so I actually built a fire under my grapes and added - wet from the rain - clippings of a nearby bush. I think it helped, if only to dry things out. The infection I had was bad, and it took many man hours to clear out all the infected leaves, but if I hadn’t the infection would have spread and I could have lost 90 or 100 % of my crop.