On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 clematis wrote:

"David Rance" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 clematis wrote:

Weather hasn't been great for grapes this year.... they really need dry
heat
for a good few weeks running up to harvest time..(September ..ish) but...
Actually "lots" of growth isn't really what's needed... you MUST cut
back
hard either after picking and the leaves have dropped or feb/march ish
....cut back to main stem. Hard.
There should be just main plant stem left only.....


That's a little simplistic! You have to leave a couple of buds from
current growth. Also pruning must be done in December/January when sap is
at its lowest and the vines have a chance of healing over the cut
otherwise it will bleed profusely and is likely to die. February? - you
can possibly get away with it. But March is far too late, especially if
there is an early spring.

The volume (southern) French growers leave three nubs on an 'upright' vine
(ie, those not hanging with table grapes) but they do not necessarily leave
any of the yearly growth as well....In most cases, it is cut back to one of
the three nubs. If a stem is left it is cut to the first apparant shooting
bud point....
I think I should have conveyed the idea better that leaving (just about) all
yearly growth is NOT what is required to produce the following year and
harsh cutting is the answer to abundant grapes.
They do similar with the wire trained vines for machine harvesting.
Usually, table grapes are ripe before they harvest the grapes for wine
making. Not by much, may be two or three weeks.
The 'Taille' (pruning) is carried out differently by different growers.
Some start straight (within about four weeks, that is) after the leaves have
dropped. Others wait until the new year.
Now some of this practice is purely practical reasons ( I accept that) ..if
you have 5 Hectare (for example) you have to start somewhere, sometime and
the whole area will/could/might take 6 weeks or more to complete - depending
on how many people are doing the *pruning*. I appreciate March is a little
late....
We may be at some odds here..... I am talking (mainly) about vines that are
many years old - at least 20 - which really do not risk dying from such
pruning ... though I also accept practices may differ due to weather
conditions as well.

Just out of interest, what pruning method do *you* practise?

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk