Pluck the suckers?

[David Engel]

Hi All,

Was watching a video about growing grapes awhile back and I'm sure it was table grapes. This fellow had crazy good vines and crops growing and showed how he "plucks" the suckers from the vines. Little growths that start in between vine branches or "Ys". Sorry don't know exactly what to call that. Do any of you do that? Made sense to me. Keeps all the energy going into the established vine and branches.

Dave

 

[NorCal]

We make two and sometimes three suckering passes each season. It helps from having too much fruit, makes it easier to spray and a consistently ripened crop.

 

[wood1954]

Last year I didn’t trim the suckers and some of them ended up being about 20 feet long. I’m keeping up with it this year, makes for a more open canopy.

 

[NorCal]

Last year I didn’t trim the suckers and some of them ended up being about 20 feet long. I’m keeping up with it this year, makes for a more open canopy.

When we trim, we make sure to leave a minimum of 10 leaves above the fruit, which we found was the minimum to have the fruit ripen.

 

[wood1954]

When we trim, we make sure to leave a minimum of 10 leaves above the fruit, which we found was the minimum to have the fruit ripen.

Good to know, I’ve wondered how many leaves to ripen the grapes, probably need a few more in Wisconsin tho.