A little help training this grape vine please!!

[ourarka]

Hi guys,

I am really hoping for some advice regarding this young grape vine. I transplanted to this position two years ago - last summer it struggled, I think it was just trying to establish itself, but so far this year has put on good growth as you can see.

I am thinking this year I should just 'let it go' - pinching out any fruit in an effort to allow it to maximise its energy intake, rather than pruning specifically. I would love to know what I 'should' be doing. I rate myself as a reasonably good gardener .... but just can't get my head around grape vines, systems and pruning!!! To work up this trellis and over the pergola, should I be 'Guyot' or 'Cordon'? Any advice much appreciated ... the more basic the better!!!

[starloc]

Just avoid any named methods....it makes it easier!

Dont prune in the summer it will bleed to death....just keep dripping out of the cut end and it will not stop , it needs pruning in the winter

First year with a new vine, we plant and leave it to get established, hopefully one bud will grow the right direction and will be long, in the winter we leave the longest, chop the others off
next year, leave the shoot to grow upwards as far as you want it to cover, rub off any other buds the base
side shoots will form on the long shoot...you might get fruit....but not usualy
In the winter chop the side shoots off the main stem back to a couple of buds, and if the main vine has gone far enough, chop the end off to help side shoots grow
the next spring, new shoots will grow from the cut back side shoots ( side shoots from the side shoots ) and fruit will form after a few leave depending on the variety

So you need to find the best stem or stems to head up the vine and pick them to be trunks, if they are a side shoot from a side shoot they will form stems with fruit ,if not you need to get side shoots from them and the fruit will form on the side shoots on those side shoots......

[roitelet]

Once you have decided on which stems to keep you can snap of any soft growth just to keep it under control, just don't cut it.

[muddled]

^^^^^ what they said,
just here to add that what's green you can take off in summer.....what's brown you only take off in winter.
I find this the easiest way to remember what I'm s'posed to doing!

For future reference, grapes are only ever produced on green new stems.....so in the winter, you can take all the brown woody side shoots off completely and you'll still get the maximum amount of bunches the following year.

If you want it growing along a fence, pinch out green growth when it nearly reaches the top of the fence and then allow one side shoot to go left and one to go right. Don't thread the fine through the fence...it get thick quite quickly....best to tie it on. The grapes, when you get them, will hang down artfully along whole length of your fence top.

I personally grow my vine for shade and privacy as well as for grapes. Therefore, I didn't bother pinching out green in the beginning...I wanted my pergola covered as quickly as possible! I don't feel its neccessary to limit growth in the early years.

On the fifth year you can start cooking stuffed vine leaves.