Friday, August 5, 2011

Pruning grape vines

Today I spotted the first growth on my grape vine. It was time for pruning and I worked for about 15 minutes using my best secateur. I know that the plant only grows flowers and bears fruit only on the new shoots therefore I cut everything back that I did not want sprouting in the wrong directions. I want the grapes to ripen along the sunny fence and want to avoid much sticking out into the garden, as one of our coffee tables is close by. 
The picture shows the branch cut off already on the table, looking quite healthy despite some insect bite marks.
I never had any training on how to prune grapes but had very good outcomes last year. In the meantime I also learned that I should cut out the weaker growth from shoots that cross each other.  I will try that in a few days when pruning our two transplanted plum trees where I already spotted some green shoots coming straight out of the trunk of the tree. Probably a sign of stress.
Happy with the outcome of my work, all that needs to be done now is to get rid of the cut-offs. I don't want to put them in the rubbish bin and am thinking of other options. Any ideas?

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