Grape Vine Pruning #4: Benefits of Correct Grape Vine Pruning

Grape vine pruning is one of the key skills required to achieve bumper harvests year after year. Careful and directed grape vine pruning can turn a rampant but poorly producing vine into an aesthetically pleasing and high yield backyard feature. Tr5ain your vine onto a trellis and become the envy of the neighbors and in-laws.

Careful grape vine pruning helps create structure, shape and strength in the plant. Shape and structure helps create a strong growth framework within the plant. In turn, this helps the plant develop the strength required to support a bountiful harvest. There is nothing worse than a cane snapping because it is too heavily laden with fruit. Grape vine pruning helps direct the plant's growth energy into canes where there is sufficient support. We can then focus on clusters growth to ensure high yields. For more information please visit my site
Patio Projects.

Left alone, a plant will send its growth energy around the plant with fairly random selection in terms of creating strong and shapely structures. The natural distribution of growth energy is not actually random but it has more to with available light, soil temperature, availability of nutrients for growth, cane growth patterns, and hours of sunlight per day than it has to do with making our trellis pleasing to the eye or the harvest bountiful.

Our pruning intervention is designed to manage and direct the natural growth energy of the plant into the buds where we want to encourage growth and away from the buds where we do not want to encourage growth. While most people happily settle for a few clusters, rather than weakening the plant and reducing the harvest, careful grape vine pruning allows us to direct the growth of the plant growth to develop strength and to focus the growth energy into particular clusters in order to optimise the harvest.

Each backyard environment has its own particular aspect and requirements. Very few backyards give the grower room to create vineyard style vines in their backyard. No problem. The vineyard framework does not provide any growth characteristics unique to a good harvest and vines can be structured and shaped to get the best out of your particular environment.

Breaking the vineyard growing model allows you to become creative. For instance, you could plant your trellis with 2 plants, one at each end; say one table variety and one wine variety and there are lots of varieties. You could even plant four different varieties, one in each corner and select early or late harvest, table or wine varieties, with green or purple grapes to create a supply of grapes across a longer time period and for different purposes.

In any garden plants compete for space, sunlight and available nutrients. While a lot of people think that weeds dominate every available space, this is not so. Weeds have growth characteristics and, as the quality of the soil improves, the weed type changes and the weeds move toward the less hardy types. If you don't believe that, pick a patch of barren soil, add green matter and leave it. As the ground softens the tough weeds will begin to die out through over nutrition and the weed species will change to softer more easily managed species.

Depending on your particular situation and the location of your vine, the competition your vine gets from other plants will influence its growth and harvest. Vines are sun loving plants and good growing conditions help the plant develop resistance to infection and ward off attack from predators. We can use this to advantage when selecting the location and type of supporting framework. A trellis by its very nature can help you isolate your vines and help them win their share of sunlight and space. You can manage the ground, soil condition and available nutrients to help your plant maximise its harvest. Similarly, an espalier plant or wire pyramid could also be located and managed to help control the environment and improve the harvest.

When all these factors are being successfully managed you should be able to get bumper crops year after year for many, many years. The original concord variety, first produced in 1849, is still growing strong and there is a living vine in Slovenika that is around 400 years old and still going. In other words, get it right and your descendants will enjoy the fruits of your labor for many years to come! For more information please visit my site
Patio Projects.