Grapevine: when and how to prune

Grapevine: when to prune it?

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Do the winter prune in December–January, when the leaves have fallen and the plant is fully dormant. Choose a day without hard frost.

Stop pruning from February: the sap starts to rise and the vine bleeds heavily from every cut, sometimes for days.

The summer prune comes in June–July, around and after flowering: you shorten the green shoots, remove the side shoots and thin the bunches.

What else to prune in those months? January · June · July · December

Grapevine: how to prune it?

1. Train the vine with a permanent trunk and one or two horizontal arms along tensioned wires, against a wall or over a pergola. Along these arms, every 20–30 cm, sit short, knobbly spurs.
2. In winter, cut each of last year’s canes back to 1–2 buds above the spur it grows from. In spring these buds produce the shoots that carry the bunches.
3. Cut a few centimetres above the top bud: the pith of the cane dries back a little, and this way the bud is spared.
4. After the winter prune, tie the trunk and arms in firmly again, with soft ties that don’t cut into the bark.
5. In summer, shorten each shoot carrying bunches to two leaves beyond the last bunch. Keep one or two shoots per spur, and remove the side shoots from the leaf axils and any shoots from the old trunk.
6. Leave one or two bunches per shoot and, in July, remove a few leaves around the bunches so sun and air can reach them. Not too many: in full sun against a warm wall, grapes can scorch.

How much to cut, and how often?

• In winter most of last year’s canes go, often more than three-quarters of the wood. That sounds a lot, but a vine copes well and gives larger, sweeter grapes as a result.
• In summer you shorten each fruiting shoot once, and remove side shoots and surplus shoots as soon as you see them.
• Bring a neglected vine back to a trunk with arms over two or three winters: each year, take out part of the old, tangled wood.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• Blackbirds, spotted flycatchers and wrens sometimes nest in a dense vine against a wall or over a pergola. The June–July summer prune falls in the nesting season (15 March–15 August): look between the leaves first, and leave the area around an active nest alone until the young have fledged.
• The December–January winter prune falls well outside the nesting season: you won’t disturb any birds then.
• The small scented flowers in June are largely self-pollinating, but bees collect pollen from them. In late summer wasps, blackbirds and starlings come for the ripe grapes: protect the best bunches with paper or fine mesh bags, not loose netting in which birds get tangled, and leave the rest for the birds.
• Healthy prunings can go on a dead hedge, and sturdy pieces from the winter prune can be used as cuttings. Clear up fallen grapes if a dog uses the garden: grapes are poisonous to dogs.

Common mistakes

• Pruning too late in winter, from February onwards, so the vine bleeds heavily.
• Cutting too little out of fear, ending up with a tangle of canes with lots of leaves and small, sour grapes.
• Leaving every bunch on: they then ripen poorly and stay small.
• Stripping all the leaves around the bunches, so the grapes scorch in the sun.
• Skipping the summer prune, so the bunches hang in the shade of too much foliage and go mouldy.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Kiwi vine
• Hardy kiwi
• Virginia creeper
• Wisteria
• Fig tree

Similar to: Difference from hop · Difference from kiwi fruit · Difference from hardy kiwi · Difference from Virginia creeper

Plant profile: Grapevine · Pruning calendar and basic rules