Growing grape vines, When to prune?

[Bob]

Have one concord grape vine...when planted did not plan on making wine.. just to use as table grapes... But alas, got into the hobby and I beat the wife to the vine. This will be the second winter for the vine... amazed with the production off of one vine.. 53 clusters... grapes were not huge (size of blueberrys), but I was able to harvest enough to make one gallon. Question is when would be the best time to prune back. Info I have been getting is anywhere from November through February.. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[troton]

I recommend the book "From Vine to Wine" Loved it. He said to prune between January and March. I asked a few wine makers two from California Napa area and two here in Wisconsin. They all said the same time frame. They said they try to have it done by Feb. I was a bit suprised.

 

[Bob]

Thanks Troton. Majority of the info I was able to research did say January but wasnt sure. I plan on a major pruning... try to get larger grapes. Also need to plant a good wine grape... will have to research a source for that.. my local nurseries do not carry a very good selection. Thanks again and enjoy.

 

[Anthony]

Winter hardy grapes

Hi Bob,

I have been researching decent cold-weather grapes that can withstand our Wyoming winters and have narrowed it down to either Marquette or Frontenac which can be planted in zone 3.

On a recent trip to upstate NY, I tried wine from both grapes and they were delicious and seemed pretty complex. The people were telling me about a number of hybrids that were coming out of both Cornell and the University of Minnesota which had complexity and hardiness. Here is a web page that discusses the two I mentioned.

http://www.eccevines.com/grapes/marquette-grapes.html

http://www.eccevines.com/grapevines/frontenac-grapevines.html

There is a winery just north of Cheyenne that is experimenting with these cold weather red grapes that you can check out. They're a bit closer to you than they are to me so I haven't been down there yet to visit (I'm way up near Yellowstone). Here is their page.

http://www.tablemountainvineyards.com/

Share any discoveries you make. With any luck, we can practice with the Concords so that we know what we're doing by the time the "good" grapes are ready

Anthony

 

[dloftus]

When to prune

I have a small muscadine vineyard in Florida, so my results may be different than your situation. We prune toward the end of cold weather, usually around the end of February. In colder climates you should probably wait until the first or second week of March. Something about pruning putting a stress on the vine that is compounded by cold weather, hence waiting for things to start warming up, but before they bud out. Here are some photos of my vineyard -- http://www.pbase.com/dloftus/grapes Hope this helps

 

[Sacalait]

Very impressive! I'll be pruning by the end of the month.

 

[Racer]

When to prune can depend on where you live too.I'm in zone 5 and can see temps. low enough in winter that can kill parts of the vine (if not most of the vine). If pruned too early in the dormant season you may have whats left get killed off by a bad winter.If I'm not mistaken concord vines need to be long spur pruned or cane pruned. If you cut back to 2 bud spurs (like most books tell you to do) you might not get a crop next year.

 

[Manimal]

When to prune

Racer is right on... pruning varies depending upon location. I would assume Colorado is quite cold in winter. Cold climates require later pruning as it helps to delay bud-break and avoid spring frost damage. Also, you should probably avoid spur-pruning as Racer stated in order to avoid winter damage. Up here in Ontario, the general practice is to cane prune starting in January for some varieties and right through to March for others, depending on whether they are late or early budding, respectively.