What terrible things will happen if I prune my one year old vines in October before they go dormant? I must leave here in Oct. and will not return 'til next spring. Will they bleed to death? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. FarmerJerry
Hi farmerjerry I've been looking at your post for two days now waiting for someone more qualified than myself to reply. That doesn't seem to be happening so here goes. I am a commercial grower but my knowledge is restricted to my own region which is quite far and quite different from yours. This being said I believe that certain basics will remain true regardless of where you are. As things have been taught to me, pruning a grape before it has gone dormant will cause the vine to attempt to grow new shoots to replace what you have removed. In doing so it uses up vital reserves of energy which it should be sending down to its roots for its period of dormancy. therefore I would suggest that it would be better to wait until spring to prune. I would like to point out that my knowledge is limited to my own extreme conditions and invite anyone else to correct me if i am wrong. P.S. They will definitely not bleed to death. good luck Dalarry
Thanks, Larry, for the info. I knew there had to be a reason for dormant pruning, but never considered the part you said about new growth coming on. That sure makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much! Can you answer, (just out of curiosity), the following question?: I have several peach and apple trees, but no fruit this year, because of the Easter freeze that wiped out fruit production all over the Southeast. Can this happen to grapes too? Regards, .... FarmerJerry
Hello Again, The answer to that is a little complicated but I will attempt to give you a reasonably short, clear answer. yes and no. (how's that?) Ok, the grape is actually designed with a backup system. each bud is actually three buds in one. A primary, secondary and tertiary. If the primary bud is damaged, ( by frost etc. ) the secondary will take its place and so on with the tertiary. Unfortunately the tertiary will rarely if ever bear fruit. I hope this was helpful for you. good luck Dalarry
