How Do I Prune a Grape Vine in North Carolina?

Prune vines when they are dormant in North Carolina, from February to March. This will cause less shock to the vine and will make it easier to see what you're doing.

Reduce the amount of 3-year-old wood on the vine if it has become poorly maintained and overgrown. These stems, called cordons, can be more than 2 inches in diameter, so use a pruning saw or long-handled loppers. Cut near but not flush with the main trunk of the vine. You'll want to be left with two cordons, spreading horizontally on both sides of the main trunk.

Examine the cordons to find what's called last year's wood. Grapevine cordons send out canes, or flexible shoots, each spring, and they harden off to become fruiting wood by fall. Each branch of last year's wood will have buds spaced along its surface.

Working back from the tip of each branch of the grapevine, prune off 85 to 90 percent of last year's wood. For each complete vine, you'll want to be left with 40 to 50 buds, with three to five buds on each downward hanging branch of fruiting wood. These buds will produce bunches of grapes.