The Vitis vinifera, known all over the world as grapevine or vine, is a plant very present in farms and family gardens, both for its grapes (raw material for winemaking) and for its traditional and aesthetic value. Caring for a vine properly is not easy, and one aspect to consider with a vine is pruning. This climber can get quite large in the wild, but farmers and gardeners almost always prune it to keep the small shrubs ready for harvest. This pruning cannot be done under any circumstances. many people wonder when are the vines pruned.
For this reason, we are going to dedicate this article to telling you when to prune the vines, what are their characteristics and aspects to take into account.
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When are the vines pruned?
When deciding when to prune vines, the same rules apply as for the vast majority of plants: vines should be pruned while they are in a state of vegetative dormancy. On the contrary, the plant does not store nutrients properly and becomes weak and loses a lot of energy after pruning. For this reason, the usual time for pruning is always at the end of fruiting and in early spring, before returning to activity.
In this sense, some recommend pruning between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, since the plant produces later but more abundant and better quality fruits.
How to prune a vine
There are two types of vine pruning: formation size and fruiting size.
The formation pruning is practiced during the first years of the life of the vine and its function is to give the plant an adequate shape and structure. This form will vary according to the function that we want to give to the vine, it is not the same thing to find the maximum yield of grapes than, for example, dShade the vines in the garden.
Pruning is done on old plants that already have a sufficient base shape, the aim is for the plants to grow healthy and bear good fruit.
How to prune young and old vines
The training pruning is done in the first 3 or 4 years of the vine. Pruning should be done the first winter after planting, but can wait until the following year if your vines are still too small and fragile.
For the first pruning, choose the thickest and straightest branch of the vine, which will become its main branch. You should prune all other weak branches down to the base, as well as the main branch if it is a black vine, leaving 2 buds, or 3 buds if it is a white vine . At the next size, again select the strongest shoot and cut the others leaving a main shoot about 30 cm long. Also here it would be helpful to tie the branch to a guide or support, pinch it to the branch when it has reached the same height, and pinch the same branch the following year for a length of about 25cm.
There are other types of pruning, but this is the most common pruning method used to allow the vine to produce lots of fruit without getting too big.
When it comes to old vines, fruiting pruning is carried out on vines that already have the necessary basic structure, good maintenance is necessary to remove the parts in poor condition and its branches do not throw the sun between them.
To continue to stimulate vine growth, you must prune old woody branches that no longer produce new growth. Also prune branches or parts that appear diseased or in poor condition, and remove new growth that crosses the main branch or impedes its growth by blocking light.
Steps for pruning vines and providing shade
If the main purpose of your vines is to provide shade before fruit set, pruning should be done in a completely different way. Leaving only the thickest stem of the vine, tied to a support for me to climb on, and remove all emerging side branches until the vine reaches the desired height, from which it can be encouraged to grow and become bushy. You place them in a way that will provide enough shade when you are done covering them.
The harvest of the grapes depends on the timing of the pruning of the vines and the climatic conditions of the region and the season. Usually, however, it starts in the summer, in the middle or at the end of July, and lasts until September.
Aspects to consider when pruning the vine
Usually, the pruning of the vines is done during the dormant period of the plant, the rest of the plant. Thus, the vine will be pruned before resuming its activity because it weakens and loses energy due to lack of stored nutrients. For him, We place the pruning season between late winter and early springwhen the fruiting season ends.
What is late pruning? Pruning is done just after the plants start to sprout. This moment is generally not the time to prune the vines, since when cutting large reserves are eliminated.
What happens if you prune the vines before the plants go dormant? In this case, we end up with plants without carbohydrate reserves, and if they are not allowed to rest, germination is delayed and the plant loses its vigor.
Other aspects to consider are:
- Climatology: the wood of the vine and its branches can become diseased and when they are pruned they create wounds in the wood which favor its entry. It is important to avoid rainy, foggy and very humid days as they favor the spread of the fungus.
- plant age: you should know that pruning young vines is not the same as pruning mature vines. Younger plants are more susceptible to frost and, not surprisingly, don’t have a great ability to recover from the effects of frost. This is why the pruning of young vines must be deferred after the passage of the cold winter.
Hopefully with this information you can learn more about when vines are pruned and what their characteristics are.