How do I Prune Domestic Grapevines?

Spur Pruning

• 1

  Trim away all weak or small shoots from the main arms (main branch vines) on the grape plant. Use a pruners and clip the shoots one-quarter inch above their place of attachment.

• 2

  Look at each main vine arm on the plant. Thin out or remove healthy side branches so that they are spaced 6 to 10 inches apart. Make the cut one-quarter inch above their attachment to the vine arm. You may end up removing many side branches so that only a few remain at the proper spacing. Or, if very few side branches exist, you may not remove any so that you have some spaced 12 to 18 inches apart.

• 3

  Cut back each remaining side branch so only two buds remain. Count the buds from the point at which the side branch starts off of the main vine arm outward to the second healthy bud. Clip off the rest of the side branch one-half inch beyond this second bud.

• 4

  Loosely tie the pruned vines as needed to the trellis structure with garden twine. Remove and retie vines that are especially large or their old ties are frayed or look weak.

Cane Pruning

• 5

  Select one lateral (side) branch on the strongest vine arms on the grape plant. Cut it so only 12 buds remain. With a piece of garden twine, tie this long side branch horizontally onto the trellis. Tie it snuggly, but loose enough so there is no direct pressure on the vine's wood tissue.

• 6

  Choose one other side branch on each of the vine arms and cut it to retain only two buds. Make the pruning cut one-half inch above the second lowest bud on the side branch.

• 7

  Prune off all other side branches on the main arms so that only the long 12-bud length and a shorter two-bud length branch remain. Overall, the grape plant has one to five main vine arms, each with a long 12-bud branch and a two-bud branch.