Pruning the Petone Vineyard

Our Petone home has seven “Helena” vines and two Kyoho vines planted around the garden.  Pruning day today so here’s a wee overview on how to prune a grapevine.

These are the West Wall Helena vines.  They are three year old vines, struck from cuttings, ungrafted.  I’m going to show you how to spur prune these two vines.  Last year I laid down two strong canes from new growth coming from the head.  The buds on these two canes gave me all those branches and several bunches of delicious grapes.

The above picture shows what is described as spur pruning.  The two year old wood is now providing a strong structure holding onto the stainless bar (aka the fruiting wire).  Last year’s growth has be cut down to two buds above the older cane.  Further down the trunk I have kept two buds on the single spur.  These buds are the vine’s future.  Generally a cane can be spur pruned for about five years before a new, more vigorous cane is needed to replace it.  You can imagine a spur on spur 5 times over becomes a bit clumsy.  I plan on laying a new cane on one side only when it’s time and then do the other side the following year.    This is the plan but nature is the ultimate decider.

Saving the cuttings to make new plants.  Let me know if you want some!

The garden vine is being trained to form an arch over to the vege patch.  This was also spur pruned this year after putting on some terrific growth.  It was planted a year after the West Wall vines.

Frog approves.

The shed vines are being trained to grow overhead.  Some canes grew into the trees so I’ll be watching how many buds I keep in that area.  An old curtain rod makes a stylish addition to the trellis system.  A bargain ball of acrylic yarn from the Warehouse seems to be neverending and very durable.

All tidied and ready for the spring.  I will follow up with an oil spray on the pruned vines.  Recipe is as follows:

• 2 tablespoons of baking soda,
• 5 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide,
• 2 tablespoons of castile soap (olive oil based) or doTerra liquid concentrate
• 4 litres of water.

Spray this on the vines on a calm, unfrosty winter’s day.  The vines must not be stressed, dry or freezing during this application.  Enjoy your garden!