Hi! I live in Campbell River, BC. I just bought a house that has one grape vine. Not sure of the variety. I am new to grape growing. The previous owner said he used the grapes to make wine. This year the harvest was so small that it was not worth the effort to make wine. Most of the new growth was less than five feet long. I looked at your links for pruning vines and it appears that mine had very little pruning over its life. The main stock comes out of the ground and about two feet above the ground the stock splits into 3 or 4 branches. Which in turn split into many more so by the time the vine reach the top of the arbor there are as many as 15 branches. These branches are old stock and cover most of the top of the arbor. The arbor is really an 8' X 12' area supported by 4 posts about 7 feet off of the ground. The grape vine shares the arbor with a wysteria plant. From everything I see on the various grape pruning sites, I should cut most of the old branches off of the main stock and leave maybe three or four. I should further cut these three or four to run only a few feet across the top of the arbor. I should probably get rid of the wysteria plant as well. Should I get another grape vine? I am not sure whether this one is a male or female. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Paul
Yes to all except there is no need for another vine. they are self fertilizing. Don't prune it yet, January - February would be better. Ralph
Hi Pakman, Ralph is right, there is no such thing as a male or female grape vine. From what I read, you have got job on your hands my friend! The best way for you is to start over again. Where the main stock splits 3 feet off the ground, are there any new growth (1 year old). If there is any growth, that is where you would want to start teaching your "new" grape vine from. I suggest that you should take only one stem up to where the arbor starts (7 feet of the ground as in your post) and then split it there. This will ensure that all your grapes are on top of the arbor and have the best exposure to sunlight and the buds of the grape vine will also be much more fertile - it will have more grapes. Always remember, that a grape vine will also not produce grapes when it to vigorously grown. -+6 feet of growth is more than enough to produce a good quality grape. In your case, I think there are to many "branches" and the whole grape vine is to condensed. Hope this will help Danie Wium mail me at grapes@my-grape-vine.com
