How and When to Prune Grapevines for Healthy New Growth
Grapevines tolerate extreme pruning! They benefit from yearly cuts during the dormant season. Prune them in the right way at the right time and they’ll reward you with bunches of grapes by late summer. Grape grower Jerad Bryant shares when and how it’s best to prune your vines.
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Grapes grow off of long, clinging vines with springy tendrils. They wrap around other support systems like how squash and cucumber vines do. Vigorous, cold-hardy, and quick-growing, grapevines are the perfect fruiting crop for home gardeners.
Because grapes sprout long, twining vines each year they benefit from annual pruning. Don’t be afraid to make extreme cuts, as they’ll benefit your crop in the long run. We’ll cover two main ways to prune grapes: cane and spur pruning.
We’ll also discover a few ways to train grapevines for maximum yields. Which way is best for you depends on your garden, why you’re growing grapes, and how you want your vines to look. First, let’s learn when to make cuts before we see how to do them.
When to Prune Grapevines
Grapevines benefit from pruning during the dormant season. It’s best to make cuts from January through the first of March, according to Oregon State University Extension Service horticulturist Erica Chernoh. Grapevines lack leaves, flowers, and fruit during this time, making it easy to see where you need to cut.
Dormant pruning redirects energy in the vines. Instead of growing long, twining shoots without flowers and fruit, you’ll convince your specimens to sprout fruiting wood from the cuts you make.
You may also prune vines during spring and summer, though it’s generally better to do so during the dormant seasons. Open wounds can lead to infections and pest infestations during the growing season.
When in doubt, wait until the grapevines are leafless with new buds forming. You don’t want to prune early in December before buds form, and you also don’t want to wait until after they open. The sweet spot for pruning is when the buds actively swell on spurs and canes.
How to Prune Grapevines
How to prune your vines depends on the training system you’re using. Some methods target spurs, while others use new and old canes to create strong, fruiting structures. Let’s see which techniques work best for you!
Canes, Spurs, and Cordons
Grape growing can quickly become complicated! Maybe you looked up how to prune the vines and came across terms like canes, spurs, and cordons. Though these fancy terms seem complex, they help us plot the grapevines’ structures for maximum yields.
- Canes
- Long, woody vines that grew for a year
- Spurs
- Pruned back canes with one to three buds
- Cordons
- One-year or older canes that grow horizontally off of the main trunk
When pruning, these three terms allow us to point out the specific parts of grape plants. Grape bunches form off of one-year-old growth; by maintaining a healthy rotation of fresh and one-year-old wood, you’ll keep your grapes producing year after year. The one-year-old canes produce fruit this year, and the fresh ones become canes for next year’s fruiting season.
Training Systems
Now that we have grape terminology out of the way, let’s see which training systems are best for home gardens. Bilateral cordon training is best for commercial growers with many plants in a vineyard. Arbor and fan training work better in home gardens.
Bilateral Cordon
Most commercial vineyards use the bilateral cordon training method. This involves placing two to four one-year-old stems horizontally on taught wires. You’ll prune the ends and leave a certain amount of buds on the plant depending on the type of grape you’re growing. You’ll also leave two short spurs with one or two buds near the trunk; they’ll form next year’s canes.
Remove all other growth aside from the cordons, spurs, and trunks. Your grapevine should have a T-shape, with a main thick trunk going upwards and two or four horizontal vines going in opposite directions.
The cordons should have a specific number of buds according to the grape type. Wine grapes need 20 to 30 buds per plant, while table grapes require 50 to 80 for maximum fruit production. The buds look different than the woody stems; they’re swollen, greenish, and fleshy, emerging from growth points along the stems.
Fan
Fan training is ideal for growing the plants up walls, trellises, or fences. It’s similar to espalier structures, where a plant grows on a flat plane for easy harvesting. This method works best for weak grapevines and those that grow upright canes.
Instead of arranging cordons horizontally along wires, you’ll have them go upwards. Interweave the year-old stems between the supports so they look like the spines of a handheld fan. At the base of the trunk, leave two to three two-bud spurs. These will form next year’s cordons, while the fan-like canes will grow this year’s fruit. Prune off any other growth aside from the spurs and cordons.
Annually, you’ll prune the old canes and replace them with the fresh ones that grew from the spurs. After a few years of healthy growing, you may opt to have six to eight cordons a year instead of three to four. Ensure your trellis can support the weight of your grapevine, as mature specimens can be heavy!
Arbor
I grow grapes on an arbor; it’s a great way to gain shade, ornamental beauty, and delicious fruit from a single plant! The canes grow vertically on the supports, creating a shady tunnel you can walk through or sit under. As the grapes grow, you’ll be able to watch them form above your head!
Any type of arbor works for growing grapes, though it needs to be strong and sturdy to support the weight of the plant. Wood and metal arbors are the best materials since they last many years before they break down.
For arbor training, have two vines on opposite sides of the support grow up and meet each other in the middle. This ensures even coverage and allows you to plant two different grape varieties! I have hops growing up on one side of my arbor and a ‘Concord’ grapevine growing on the other.
Though it’s easy to let the plants ramble without pruning, it’s best to check their growth with annual cuts during the dormant season. Identify a few main trunks to grow along the length of the arbor; never prune them and let them thicken with age.
Along the trunks leave three-foot-long cordons at regular intervals, and let a few spurs remain low on the trunk. The cordons will form fruit this year, while the spurs give you canes for next year’s harvest.
Pruning Methods
Two main methods exist for cutting back grapevines. Cane pruning is the first—we describe this method above in the training systems.
Another method, spur pruning, offers an alternative technique that some growers prefer. Choose whichever style you like, and adapt the approach to work with your training system, whether it’s a bilateral cordon, fan, or arbor type.
Cane Pruning
Cane pruning involves cutting off all growth older than two years and replacing horizontal cordons with new ones. The new stems form bushels of grapes, while short spurs near the trunk grow into next year’s canes.
This type of cutting works well in bilateral cordon and fan systems. Though it requires you to go into the garden and work in winter and early spring, it’s a productive method that leads to dozens of grape bunches by late summer.
Spur Pruning
Spur pruning is a bit easier than cane pruning. You leave cordons in place instead of replacing them; they’ll grow woody and thick like the trunk. Along the cordons prune short spurs, leaving one every three to four inches with two to three buds. The two to three-bud spurs grow grape bunches, while the thick cordons grow woodier and stronger each year.
You may use this method in any system, though it works well for arbor grapevines. You’ll let a central trunk get thick, leaving short spurs along its length. These emerge and elongate in spring, forming leafy stems, flowers, and ripe grapes!
Pruning Tips
Always prune rank growth that’s two years or older. Grapevines grow long, leafy vines as they age, prioritizing vegetative growth over fruit production. The longer the vines grow, the less productive the spurs will be. The plant must send sugar, energy, and moisture through those long stems.
Cut your vines annually between January and March 1st. Annual cutting promotes high yields, healthy growth, and easily manageable stems. If you inherited a garden with an old vine grown out of control, hard pruning this year will revitalize and rejuvenate the specimen.
When in doubt, prune it out! Grapevines recover well from cuts, healing wounds and sprouting fresh growth to compensate.
