Pruning Grape
When and how — Vitis vinifera
Prune your grape in January, February, June and July — the optimal month is usually June.
The next pruning window is June.
When to prune?
The fruit grape is pruned in January, February, June and July.
Pruning fruit is about balancing growth and yield.
Fruit trees and bush fruits live in an eternal balance between leaf production (vigour) and fruit (yield). Prune too little and you get a dense plant with masses of small, disease-prone fruit. Prune too much and the plant reacts with watershoots and almost no fruit. The right line: once a year in winter dormancy (January–February) shape an open crown so light and air can reach every branch. With apple and pear, learn the difference between fruit spurs (short, 2–3-year-old wood — that's where the flowers come from) and wood buds (long whippy growth). Bush fruits need a different approach: redcurrant and gooseberry are pruned to an open goblet shape; blackcurrant needs renewal pruning where you remove one-third of the oldest stems at ground level each year.
How to prune grape
Grapevines require two distinct pruning sessions each year, and getting both right is essential for a good crop. The main prune happens in January or February while the vine is fully dormant. Use clean, sharp secateurs or loppers and be prepared to remove a lot of growth—up to 90 per cent of the previous year's wood. Establish a permanent framework of one or two main stems (the rod or rods) trained along your wires, then prune back all the side shoots (laterals) that grew the previous summer to one or two buds from the main rod. These short spurs will produce the fruiting shoots in the coming season. Cut just above a bud at a slight angle. Vines bleed sap if pruned too late, so finish by mid-February at the latest. The second prune is a summer trim in June or July, once the vine is in active growth and flowering or fruiting. Pinch or cut back the green side shoots to two leaves beyond each developing bunch of grapes. This concentrates the plant's energy into ripening fruit rather than making excessive leafy growth, and improves air circulation around the bunches, reducing the risk of fungal disease. Also remove any shoots that aren't carrying fruit, cutting them back to five or six leaves. If your vine is young and not yet fruiting, simply shorten all side shoots to five leaves to build the framework without exhausting the plant.
Common mistakes
✗ Finally pruning after five years of neglect
A drastic prune after years of nothing triggers an explosion of watershoots and almost no fruit the next year. Better to gradually restore over 2–3 years than do everything in one winter.
✗ Pruning blackcurrant the way you prune redcurrant
Blackcurrant fruits on one-year-old wood, redcurrant on short, multi-year spurs. Prune a blackcurrant for shape (like redcurrant) and you'll harvest nothing.
✗ Pruning during frost
Wounds don't heal in frost and the wood can split. Wait for a frost-free day, even in winter dormancy.
Hold off on pruning
Better to wait than prune at the wrong moment. The next optimal window is June. Until then: leave the plant alone — only remove dead or diseased wood (which you can do year-round).
