I have incredibly over grown grape vines, & Kiwi. Kiwi is old, bears tons of
fruit. I am wondering if it is too late to prune now, for fear of bleeding.
We just had frost a week ago. Any help would be appreciated.

MsStake wrote:

I have incredibly over grown grape vines, & Kiwi. Kiwi is old, bears tons of
fruit. I am wondering if it is too late to prune now, for fear of bleeding.
We just had frost a week ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Generally, it is recommended to prune these vines in winter (November -
February) while they are dormant. I think you can still get by pruning now,
although the grape may bleed some. You can cut back both pretty hard - they are
both very vigorous vines. FYI, frost really has no bearing on this process.

pam - gardengal

In article , "MsStake"
wrote:

I have incredibly over grown grape vines, & Kiwi. Kiwi is old, bears tons of
fruit. I am wondering if it is too late to prune now, for fear of bleeding.
We just had frost a week ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Northwest kiwi pruning is done at any point between about December &
January, maybe to mid-February in a cold year, but not later. Spring\ is
the WORST time to prune Kiwis which will bleed copiously to their
detriment. Light pruning can be done in July for shape & to remove smaller
bits of old canes & to shorten fruiting branchings to as few as six nodes.
But the serious pruning will have to wait until winter, when
three-year-old canes & older are much shortened, or to bring down
excessive height. The male vine is treated a bit differently in that it
can have all its canes shortened as soon as it stops flowering to induce
the new summer growth that'll flower the following year. It's easy but
difficult to describe, when a picture makes it so obvious; get a kiwi book
out of the library before you do the late spring or summer light pruning
so that you'll have illustrations for the different types of pruning for
male & female, winter & summer.

Grapes I have no far less personal experience with -- I had a pathetic but
big arbor two decades ago, which if I had it now I think I'd know what to
do, but at the time it was defacto for shade rather than for fruit. The
usual recomendation is an extreme hard pruning of muscadines in early
winter, of other grapes in late winter (by mid-February in the Northwest,
but perhaps as late as right now if you're at a higher elevation & it
really is still wintery). Pruned out of season I don't believe they bleed
as copiously as kiwis, but can still be depleted from bleeding. The severe
extreme pruning that grapes actually require I sure wouldn't risk out of
season, but maybe some belated shaping rather than the full pruning
wouldn't hurt. Just make better plans to butcher the hell out of it next
winter -- most Northwest garden arbors don't bare much fruit mainly
because gardeners can't bring themselves to winter-prune at the required
level of savagery.

-paghat the ratgirl

PS: I only just now noticed your UseNet handle is a whimsical pun. Made me
smile.

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

thankyou for you very informative info. I will get a book from the library.
"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "MsStake"
wrote:

I have incredibly over grown grape vines, & Kiwi. Kiwi is old, bears
tons of
fruit. I am wondering if it is too late to prune now, for fear of
bleeding.
We just had frost a week ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Northwest kiwi pruning is done at any point between about December &
January, maybe to mid-February in a cold year, but not later. Spring\ is
the WORST time to prune Kiwis which will bleed copiously to their
detriment. Light pruning can be done in July for shape & to remove smaller
bits of old canes & to shorten fruiting branchings to as few as six nodes.
But the serious pruning will have to wait until winter, when
three-year-old canes & older are much shortened, or to bring down
excessive height. The male vine is treated a bit differently in that it
can have all its canes shortened as soon as it stops flowering to induce
the new summer growth that'll flower the following year. It's easy but
difficult to describe, when a picture makes it so obvious; get a kiwi book
out of the library before you do the late spring or summer light pruning
so that you'll have illustrations for the different types of pruning for
male & female, winter & summer.

Grapes I have no far less personal experience with -- I had a pathetic but
big arbor two decades ago, which if I had it now I think I'd know what to
do, but at the time it was defacto for shade rather than for fruit. The
usual recomendation is an extreme hard pruning of muscadines in early
winter, of other grapes in late winter (by mid-February in the Northwest,
but perhaps as late as right now if you're at a higher elevation & it
really is still wintery). Pruned out of season I don't believe they bleed
as copiously as kiwis, but can still be depleted from bleeding. The severe
extreme pruning that grapes actually require I sure wouldn't risk out of
season, but maybe some belated shaping rather than the full pruning
wouldn't hurt. Just make better plans to butcher the hell out of it next
winter -- most Northwest garden arbors don't bare much fruit mainly
because gardeners can't bring themselves to winter-prune at the required
level of savagery.

-paghat the ratgirl

PS: I only just now noticed your UseNet handle is a whimsical pun. Made me
smile.

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/