The vine (
Vitis vinifera
) is a vigorous vine with branches - on which bunches of grapes and tendrils grow - which can grow over several meters, up to 6 or 7, or even more. It is therefore important to prune this fast-growing climber, respecting a few important rules.
When to prune the vine?
There are several types of pruning, to be carried out at different times of the year, depending on the age of your vine:
Training pruning, to be undertaken the year after planting, at the end of winter, between mid-February and mid-March, to ensure good formation of the vine and give vigor to the plant;
Fruiting pruning, essential, to be carried out each year between mid-February and mid-March
, before the vegetation restarts, when the sap begins to rise (the flow of sap is called “crying”). The idea is to cut the branches from the previous year.
Green pruning, to be started in May-June, to top the young shoots (and concentrate the sap on the development of the grape clusters), remove what is superfluous to aerate the foliage and promote air circulation.
How to prune the vine?
If you have a few trellised vine stocks at home, you have no choice: you must carry out serious and precise pruning of the branches growing vertically from the carpenters (horizontally). Copyright (c) 2011 NF Photography/Shutterstock. No use without permission.
If your vine runs over a pergola, pruning involves cutting off the
dead parts
and those that go beyond the framework you had imagined. There is no need to go further to obtain beautiful, juicy bunches of grapes.
If you have a few vines (trunks) of trellised vines at home, you have no choice: you must carry out serious and precise pruning of the branches growing vertically from the carpenters (horizontally).
To work, you will need
classic pruning shears disinfected with alcohol
to cut small or medium branches, lopping pruning shears for parts located higher up, a saw for larger branches and protective gloves.
Regardless of the technique chosen and the type of pruning, it is important not to create mutilating wounds and to cut in the right place.
What is Royat cord pruning?
Two types of pruning are practiced in France:
short pruning
(retaining one to two eyes per branch) and long pruning (retaining four to ten eyes per branch). Among the short prunings is the Royat cordon pruning, favored in the vines of the south of France.
The Royat cord waist was invented in Ariège, in the Pyrenees. Known to
improve the quality of the grapes and limit the yield
, it consists of keeping only 1 or 2 arms, or 4 to 6 small spurs on the vine, which carry 2 to 3 buds each.
This technique, quite long and sometimes delicate, requires very good quality trellising.
What is the Guyot size?
Named after its inventor, Doctor Jules Guyot (19th century), long Guyot pruning is an
easy technique, accessible to everyone, whose results are very satisfactory.
To carry out Guyot pruning, you should only keep the fruiting buds, those which are therefore fertile.
For simple Guyot pruning, you must leave a fruit-bearing vine branch of five to seven buds;
For double Guyot pruning, widely practiced in Bordeaux vines, two branches must be kept, to obtain two sticks.
How to prune a young vine?
As mentioned previously, training pruning should be undertaken at the end of the first winter after planting. It is called “the two-eyed waist”.
On the young vine plant, it is advisable to
leave only two buds, to obtain at least two beautiful branches
. The energy of the roots will thus be able to concentrate on them. Keeping two allows you to have a “spare” branch in case of problems in the following months but also to better distribute the vigor of the plant. Pruning the second winter consists of choosing one of the two branches, the most beautiful (at least 1 inch in diameter) and cutting the other at the base.
Why prune the vine late?
To protect the buds from late frost
, it may be interesting to prune later. Global warming tends to cause the vines to bud earlier (expulsion of protective cotton from future foliage) but the buds remain sensitive to frost. In the most frosty places, it may be interesting to wait until March, or even early April. The start of vegetation is then delayed and the harvest is reduced a little, but to a limited extent. This will not impact your personal consumption!
How to have a beautiful vine?
To obtain a beautiful vine and be able to harvest large bunches of grapes, you must prune your plant at the right time, in the right place. Copyright (c) 2017 wjarek/Shutterstock. No use without permission.
To obtain a beautiful vine and be able to harvest large bunches of grapes,
you must prune your plant at the right time, in the right place.
There are no really bad ways to prune the vine but it seems difficult to ignore certain essentials, developed in this article.
It may seem paradoxical to cut so many branches while hoping to enjoy a good harvest, but it is precisely by helping the plant to concentrate its energy on the most vigorous parts that you have preserved that you will achieve your goal!
What to do with pruned vine branches?
With a
mechanical crusher
, it is possible to transform cut wood, rich in fresh organic matter. This can be a good mulch at the base of small fruit trees like raspberries.
It is also possible to use pruned branches as fire starters in the fireplace or wood stove. The beautiful flames are yours.