A Detailed Guide to Pruning Methods for Home-Grown Grapes

In rural areas, many households build a grape trellis in their yard. In summer, you can not only enjoy the shade under the grapevine but also eat delicious grapes. So what are the pruning methods for home-grown grapes?

Pruning methods for home-grown grapes

1. The best pruning period for grapevines is winter, generally from late November to late January of the following year. Pruning too early will affect the accumulation of nutrients in the vine. Note that pruning cannot be done in spring, as spring pruning easily causes grapevines to “bleed excessively”, weakening the vine's vigor.

2. Before pruning, carefully and meticulously observe the vine's structure and the distribution of branch groups, identify the main problems in shaping and pruning, grasp the principal contradiction, and give consideration to secondary contradictions for key adjustment. During pruning operations, you must proceed methodically step by step; you cannot snip here and cut there at random. When pruning, you must treat and handle every single branch seriously and prudently. Every cut must have a basis and be carefully considered. In technical methods and the degree of their application, be correct and reasonable, neither too light nor too heavy, appropriate and just right. Never act carelessly, hastily seeking speed, caring only about quantity and not quality.

3. For bud removal, remove all buds 40cm from the ground. For double or triple buds, keep only one bud. The principle for keeping buds is to keep strong ones and not weak ones, and not to keep deformed buds.

4. The principles for keeping buds and shoots are the “five keep” and “five do not keep”, namely: keep early ones and not late ones, keep plump ones and not thin ones, keep flower buds and not empty ones, keep lower ones and not upper ones, keep well-positioned ones and not crowded ones.