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David E. Ross[_2_] · 08-07-2013, 01:27 AM posted to rec.gardens

On 7/7/2013 1:11 PM, wrote:
Hello,

I'm growing grapes. Several websites advise me to prune leaves from
the grapevine, in order to produce more grapes. I'm not interested
in more grapes; I want better grapes. My naive guess is that more
leaves produce more sugar and sweeter fruit.

Anybody want to weigh in?

Thank you,

Ted Shoemaker

I have three grape vines, all table (not wine) grapes. They produce
very good grapes, sweet and flavorful. One vine last year filled a 5
gallon pail in a single picking. Another vine cannot be used for grape
juice; the grapes are so sweet that the juice tastes as if someone
poured a sack of sugar into it.

In the winter (we don't get snow), I prune them to control their growth.
In the spring and early summer, I carefully trim some side shoots and
tie the rest to their support wire. My goal is to prevent long shoots
from touching the ground.

No, I do not thin the leaves or the fruit. I did thin the fruit the
first year they had any, to protect the vines from overtaxing their
relatively new roots; but I do not do that now.

They get fed once a year, in March or April. They get irrigated once
every three weeks, very deeply.

In a week or so, I will again be harvesting grapes.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary