The Desert Wine Guy - How To Prune Your Grapevine

Dormant Grapevines

                                                          




   Winter is coming and for some of us (not for us in Vegas yet) it is already here. Those of us who grow Grapevines know that just because the leaves might be gone from the vine this is not the end of  keeping up on them. Now is the time to perform maintenance in order to ensure that our vines remain in good condition and that the coming season will be a healthy and productive one for  them. This time of year our vines are getting ready to go into what is known as the "Dormant" stage. In this article we will discuss what dormancy is and why the grapevine goes Dormant in the first place.  At this time of year we have already had the harvest and the Grape Juice is starting on it's way towards becoming Wine. That leaves us with our final step of the season and that is Pruning. What is pruning and how and why we prune? That is what we will talk about today. All information we will be discussing is in relation to wine grapes. For table grapes there may be different ways to prune and I recommend that you do some research on that specific topic. At the end of this article I have placed two links to a couple of great videos on pruning. I recommend that you check them out, everything is explained in a way in which a beginner can understand and learn. I think the best place to start a discussion on pruning is at the point the vine goes dormant since we don't want to prune prior to that stage. Let's begin by explaining why a Grapevine goes dormant in the first place.
   Why does a Grapevine go dormant in the first place? - To put it simply, a Grapevine goes dormant to survive an event or events (in this case coldness) that are happening or about to happen. The Grapevine goes Dormant to basically defend itself and it does so by reserving all it's energy and redirecting it to only the basic processes it needs to survive. It does that by not expelling energy on leaves, grapes or growing Canes (branches). During the dormancy stage the vine will actually appear to have died. If the vine is indeed Dormant it is not dead but kind of in a sleep phase.  If you really think about it, the grape itself is only in reality a way for the species to propagate itself anyway. That is why there are seeds in grapes. We will not discuss G.M.O products since these are not natural, normal or healthy and require mans intervention to create and propagate.
   So what is pruning? - Pruning is simply the process of removing parts of the plant (in this case a grapevine) that for reasons of vine health and productivity are  no longer needed. That sounds simple right? Well that's because for the most part it is simple.
   Why do we Prune? - Why we prune is also simple. We prune in order to prepare the vine for the start of another growing year. The old wood that the vine grew is simply not needed.  Since there will be new wood that grows the coming year there will be too much call for the vine to spread it's energy to support parts of itself that it doesn't need. This unneeded use of energy by the vines will draw nutrition away from the reason we grow them in the first place, which is to grow grapes. For us and the Grapevine this wasting of energy or resources will result in an inferior crop of Grapes. Without Pruning there will be too many clusters of grapes and the grapes themselves will be small. One other important reason we Prune is because Grapes will only grow on first year wood. In other words the wood (Canes) the vine grew in the past year will no longer grow grapes. Can you also imagine what the vine would look like if we didn't remove or Prune it? The vine would grow out of control.
                                                          

Figure #1 - Makeup Of The Grapevine

  How do we prune a grapevine? - The first thing we should know is that there are two types of wine grape pruning. There is Spur or Cordon pruning and Cane pruning. We will start first with Spur Pruning and explain what it is. To help you visualize this I would like to refer you to Figure #1 please use it as a quick reference guide for the makeup of the vine. The first part of the vine I want to draw your attention to is what is called the Cordon(s). The second part of the vine I want to draw your attention to is the Canes that are coming off of the Cordon(s). This is where we will focus most of our attention for this article. In a properly pruned (Spur/Cordon) Grapevine the Canes or Renewal Spurs will be fist width apart from each other, which is approximately 6" (see figure #2). When we first plant the vine we don't worry about pruning because our main goal is to develop the roots of the vine. We need to ensure we develop proper roots in order to start the vine off on it's life of making quality grapes as well as to allow the vine to do what it needs to do which is to grow strong and disease resistant and develop strong Cordons. Some growers would even argue that even in the second year we don't prune but that is open to debate. However long you wait to prune is not the focus here so we will move on to proper pruning technique. By the way, depending on the varietal you will probably want to prune using one particular method over the other. Since we are talking about 1st or 2nd year vines here it is important to determine first if we are even happy with the quality of the vine itself. If you have a vine that is sparse in growth or has buds spaced far apart with many dead Buds then we may actually want to pull that particular vine out and replace it. Remember that Grapevines are long term, they can live for many, many years and we want to ensure that we start off with only the strongest ones. 
   Spur Pruning - To begin with we will discuss Spur or Cordon Pruning. To help you visualize this I would like to refer you to Figure #2 again. Cane Pruning is popular in vines that tend to have medium to high vigor. Classic grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah are most often spur pruned. Let's start with learning what a Spur is. A Spur is simply what is left after we cut a Cane off leaving only 2-3 Buds on it (see Image #1 again). The Cane once cut down has now become a Spur. From this Spur will come new Canes the following year. It is very simple actually. As I have said in an earlier paragraph the Spurs should be fist width (6") apart from each other. This Spur also is sometimes also called a "renewal Spur". There are some other things to look for when Spur Pruning. Just because a Cane (future Spur) is growing does not mean that this is the Cane we want to keep on the Cordon. If there are two Canes growing in the same area and one is very skinny or either does not have buds spaced properly or do not appear to be healthy then we would look to cut that bud off at the Cordon and choose another one. We want to eventually have healthy Canes or Spurs that are appropriately spaced on our vine. Inspect the Canes by looking at the Buds on each Cane to determine if the Cane appears healthy. We also want to ensure that the Canes we pick are also growing in the proper direction or at least located in a position that we can reasonable re-direct into the right direction. The Cane we pick should be about Pencil thickness. That is it for Spur Pruning, it is that simple.
                                        

Figure #2 - Spur or Cordon Pruning

    Cane Pruning - Cane pruning (see figure #3) is considered best for low vigor vines such as in Burgundian-styled vineyards (Pinot Noir, table grapes and other lower vigor, cool climate grape varietals). Cane Pruning is also very simple. The first item to note is what is called the "Head". The Head is basically the area of the vine that originates our Canes. There are no real Cordons established in Cane Pruning since what would develop into Cordons is cut off at the end of year and replaced by new wood (Canes) that have grown the past year. In order to Cane prune you would take two strong (also pencil thick) Canes that come from the Head and twist one along along each side of the head onto the Fruiting Wire. Aside from the pencil thickness criteria some other criteria we should be looking for is the following. Remember once grown or twisted onto the Fruiting Wire we will be pruning the Canes to ensure that we have the proper 6" spacing. These next year canes will be coming from the Head of the vine. Simply put you will look at the Canes that have come off the head of your vine and pick the next years Canes that will grow to wrap around the Fruiting Wire. The two canes from last year will be cut off at the Head. The Canes that we cut off will be cut leaving Two Shoots coming from the Head of the vine. These also should be properly positioned as well as proper size and shoot positioning. These two other Canes that are not on the fruiting wire should be cut back to two Buds.
                                                     

Figure #3 - Cane Pruning

     I hope that you guys have learned about the process of Pruning. I trust that I have answered some questions that you might have had on the pruning of your Grapevines. Here are the video links I came across on YouTube that I think will really help and further explain the whole Pruning process. Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um9p1eiGiwI) is a link that will show you exactly how to Spur or Cordon prune. This next link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfd2V5DFDo0) will show you how to Cane Prune.
   OK everyone, it is that time of year again. This will be the last blog of this year and I just wanted to wish everyone a great new year. I hope that this year was productive and happy also. PLEASE everyone, if you go to a holiday party or celebrate a little to much get someone who has NOT been drinking to drive you home. Once again everyone, have a great new year.

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                                                                                                                    The Desert Wine Guy