I have a bunch of Niagara Grapes growing wildly throught my arbour. The plants are about four years old and have never been pruned. Now they are out of control and the harvest last year was minimal. How do I get control of this situation? Thanks Ziggy
Hello Ziggy, I have old Niagara vines on my propery that were here when I bought the place and they too were a mess.Your vines are very young compared to these tangled basket of snakes probably twenty or more years old.What I did was cut the vine back to what seemed like the best two arms coming out of the main trunk and stretched them out along a wire .This was done during the winter and dormant season.From these old trunks I cut all the newer shoots that there were back to three buds each.The following summer I began to get grapes and after a couple of seasons of this type of pruning now get about a bucket of grapes each year from this vine.I am probably pruning them very crudely ,but before my efforts there were no grapes and the vine was all over the ground.There are many books and articles on pruning but you simply cannot beat getting hands on help if possible,saves much time . Dan
