I screwed up - pruned for VSP, want TWC

[Riparian]

I have a small backyard vineyard in Pierre, SD that I planted several years ago. My vines died back to the soil level the first two years, but finally survived a winter last year. So I pruned them this spring. Since it had been so long since I planted them I had forgotten how I planned to prune them, so I looked it up in a couple books and everything said to prune to the bottom wire (I have a 2 wire trellis). So that's what I did. Whoops. Now I've realized I really wanted to prune to the top wire for a top wire cordon system. I have Marquette, Leon Millot, and Petite Pearl.

Am I totally screwed for this year and have to prune them back to a couple buds now? The buds are just starting to swell right now. What the heck do I do at this point? Obviously I'm pretty new to this.

Thanks

 

[GreginND]

Were you expecting a crop this year? Do you have cordons with fruiting buds on the lower wire now? And, are your vines strong enough to support a crop this year? If so, I would probably let the fruit grow on that lower wire this year like a VSP. It may be difficult to manage the canopy without more side wires to hold the canes up. I suppose you could let them flop down like a low TWC. In any case, let a couple of nice straight canes from the trunk grow this year so you can select one for a longer trunk up to the top wire.

Alternatively, yes - leave only a couple of buds to grow and train the rest of your trunk up to the top wire this year and try to establish your cordons.

 

[Pat57]

I'm not sure about Leon Millot, but Marquette and PP are supposed to be able to take at least -30F with no problem. If I had vines that dies to the ground over winter I would be pulling them out. Why plant vines that are likely to be killed again at some point?

 

[GreginND]

Pat, we've had two very bad winters for grapes up around these parts. The polar vortex winter a few years ago killed nearly everything to the ground including Marquette and PP. Even the frontenacs suffered over 70% damage that year. The following year we had a very early November deep freeze to -20 followed by a very damaging late spring freeze. So, although the winter overall was milder, it didn't really allow the vines weakened from the year before to recover well. Things are looking good for this past winter but many vineyards are still in recovery mode and yields will likely be low. Crossing our fingers for no late spring frosts.

There are very few alternatives for grapes that are hardier than these. However, NDSU has a grape breeding program to accomplish just that and they are making great progress. Give them 5-10 years and you will be seeing fantastic wines sprouting from zone 3 climates.

Leon Millot may grow in some places in SD but definitely not in ND.

 

[grapeman]

Riparian you can convert from VSP to TWC but you will often get pretty crooked trunks. If that isn't an issue to you then like Greg said you could get a small crop this year. This year train up a couple shoots as close to the main trunk as you can and remove the fruit from those shoots. Next spring cut the cordons off and continue with the two replacement trunks to the top wire and continue on as normal with TWC. If the crooked trunks bother you then bite the bullet, prune back and form new trunks for next year.

 

[Riparian]

Thanks so much for the advice you guys! I was really heartbroken thinking I might have to start all over. I will train up a couple shoots for TWC while keeping the VSP for this year.

I tried the Leon Millot for the heck of it. They haven't done any worse than the more hardy varieties. I still have 4 of the original 6 I planted two years ago. I had 3 each of Brianna and prairie star and they're all dead. Like GreginND said, we had two brutal winters in a row and then this year we finally got a reprieve. It only got down to -15 at my place this year.