Saturday 8 May 2010

Pruning grapevine

My grapevine ("Boskoop Glory") is trained accross the top of my greenhouse. I cut all last years side shoots back to the main vine mid-winter. Now it's time for it's spring prune. Each group of side shoots should be roughly a foot apart, any that aren't I snap off where they join the vine. Then I choose the best two from each group of side shoots and snap of the other weaker ones. Then I cut back each side shoot at two leaf joints above the little developing bunch of grapes:

Before pruning:

After pruning:

This pic probably shows it better, you can see how the side shoots are cut back two joints above the little developing grape bunches:

Any new growth from the leader and side shoots of these side shoots needs to be pinched out and any new shoots trying to emerge from the main vine needs to be rubbed out too. The vine will try to produce lots of these so it needs to be done every week to ensure the energy of the vine goes into the developing grapes rather than superfluous growth.
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5 comments:

  1. Joan11 May 2010 at 22:54

    I love this idea and just had to check out the other posts you have on your grapevine.

    So let me get this right...it's inside your greenhouse and trained along one side or all four?

    Do you have it along a bar or pipe or something to support it?

    It's now about 5 years old?

    This hard pruning to the main trunk and trimming of branches will keep it controllable?

    I think that is just great! Something for me to try one day. Grapes survive fine outdoors here so now I gotta figure out where to put it. Maybe abit like keeping wisteria in control? Thanks for the great idea.

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  2. Joan11 May 2010 at 22:59

    Oh one more...all in all how long will you keep the vine (lengthwise)?

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  3. Simon14 May 2010 at 22:45

    Hi Joan, it's trained along the roof about 18 inches from the apex, supported on a strong wire, yep it's about 5 years old now, yep the hard pruning keeps it controlled and puts the energy of the vine into producing fruit rather than foilage, the main stem is the length of the greenhouse - about 8 foot. Thanks for taking an interest!

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  4. Anonymous20 August 2013 at 22:12

    Hi there simon, I just wanted to know if you get any red leaves on your boskoop glory vine at all other than at the end of summer.i have a couple my self you see, some of the leaves turn red between the veins at the bottom of the vine. Thanks for any help

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  5. Simon22 August 2013 at 20:00

    Hi bon, yes I have leaves like this on my vine too but it doesn't seem to do any harm.
    Simon

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