A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Grapevine Pruning For 'DUMMIES'

My experience with gardening so far has been if you use common sense, things turn out pretty good.

I think I just took on something that will get the best of me.

I bought my first grapevine.

This vine came in a one galon pot. It has a stem (trunk??) and two lovely looking vines coming out on each side. They are about 3feet long on each side. There is a small new shoot coming from the middle. The grapevine is called "Flame Seedless Grape".

So I followed the directions and it is now planted against a 5 foot fence with lattice work at the top that I figured the vines could attached themselves to. I don't have any wire, so I just put nails into the fence and made sure the little tentacles wrapped around them. The plant is in a corner. My figuring was one arm to the left fence and the other to the right.

All made me happy and proud that I had accomplished this much. I watered it in and then came in to look up how to prune.

The pruning is very complicated and I need some simple instructions please. Can anyone out there help me with this or lead me to a place that has 'Pruning for Dummies??' This article talks about trunks, canes, arms, buds, dominant shoots..... and warns that if I don't prune correctly, ......no grapes.

EEeeeekkk!!!!

Also, did I at least do the planting and supporting correctly??

(Sorry this was so long but I can't believe this can be that complicated.)

Hope this helps you. Being in SC, I prune mine in Feb. or Mar. I don't know what they recommend for your zone. Find out before you cut.. What I have done is prune them back about 2/3 of the way down from the top. Don't cut the main stem (trunk). If you're nervous about doing that, just cut it back by 1/3.
I'm sure someone else has more advice. I'm just a home gardener. :rolleyes: