How to Cut Grapevines to the Trunk for Regrowth

There are many reasons for cutting back, or pruning, your grapevines to the trunk. Grapevines yield more fruit when they're able to put their energy into producing grapes rather than vines. The trunk supports the canes that eventually produce the fruit. Sometimes, untended grapevines become snarled and tangled as they grow in and out of each other and need to be pruned to be controlled. Your goal in pruning to the trunk is to begin to train the grapevine to produce grapes, not foliage.

Work gloves
Orange work tape
Loppers
Clippers

Instructions

- 1
  Locate the trunk or the main stem of the grapevine that you plan to prune. Wrap a length of orange work tape loosely around the trunk. This will help you identify which canes and vines to remove.
- 2
  Clip off all of the vines that extend laterally from the main trunk. Remove them from your work area. Snip off the orange tape.
- 3
  Examine the main trunk from the bottom up. You'll see bumps or nodes that stick out slightly from the trunk. Tie a piece of tape about an inch above the second node from the trunk bottom.
- 4
  Remove all of the trunk above the piece of orange tape. Your pruning should have produced a single trunk with no lateral canes, trimmed to contain only two nodes. Those nodes will produce new growth canes with nodes of their own as your grapevine regrows.

The Best Fertilizer for Young Grape Vines

My Ficus Is Dropping Yellow Leaves

Growing Grapes