Pull out pruners to control grapes

This diagram shows how to prune a grape vine correctly, eliminating much of the cane from previous seasons.

A drawing of how to set up a support for muscadine grape vines. The wire at the top will support the lateral vines that grow from the trunk.

By Darrell Blackwelder

For the Salisbury Post

February is an excellent time of the year to prune grapes, but grapes can be pruned later in the spring. Most grapes will benefit from judicial pruning now and throughout the growing season.

Pruning helps vines renew fruiting wood and prevents vines from becoming tangled masses of unproductive and often diseased wood.

Pruning allows light for fruit set and air movement, reducing the incidence of disease problems. Unfortunately, overgrown neglected vines cannot be miraculously cured with a single pruning. Overgrown vines often take years to recover from extreme pruning so in most instances it is often easier to start over with new vines correctly pruned and trained from the initial planting.

Muscadine grapes or scuppernong type grapes are the most commonly grown grape in Rowan County. Most home gardeners like this type of grape because it is much easier to train and prune on an annual basis than bunch grapes. Also indigenous to this area, muscadine grapes have fewer disease and insect problems than bunch type grapes.

Muscadine grapes are often initially trained on a single wire trellis. Some homeowners use a double wire or clothes-line type for two rows. A single wire trellis requires less labor in pruning and is generally easier to pick.

Lateral canes trained along the wire trellis remain as a permanent cane or structure of the vine. This permanent lateral may grow to be very large, up to 2 inches in diameter.

Many shoots will develop along this lateral. Each cane or shoot is cut back annually leaving 2-3 buds per spur. Approximately 20 spurs should be retained for each 10-foot permanent arm. The location of the spurs is not important in muscadine grapes. When the laterals are correctly pruned, the cut vines appear to have a hair brush effect, with spurs pointing up and down. These spurs will produce the fruit and new canes each season. The vines will bleed as the weather warms before the leaves begin to sprout. This will not injure the plant; it’s a normal part of the pruning process.

This type of vine is very easy to prune and maintain once permanent laterals are established. It is imperative that muscadine grapes be severely pruned each year to control growth, increase fruit set and keep vines healthy. For more information go to http://www.ces. ncsu.edu/muscadines/muscadine/production.html for more in-depth muscadine grape production.

Darrell Blackwelder is County Extension Director for Rowan. rowan.ces.ncsu. edu. www.rowanextension.com