I planted some grafted seedless grapes about 2 months ago. Most have 2-3 new growths but some are coming from the opposite side from where I placed the metal support pole. Should I prune the others and just keep the one I want to be the main body of the plant? Would it allow the plant to concentrate vertical growth on one branch?
I started an oh my muscadine last spring. That pic shows what it looked like when it first arrived from Gurneys.
I waited until it started pushing growth… and then removed all branches except for the tallest one.
My goal was to get it up 55 inches to my trellis wire… and then have one fork grow 10 ft east and another 10 ft west.
At season end it looked like this.
The instructional vids from isons stress the importance of keeping any side shoots minimized to just a leaf or two… so the main shoot will grow quickly.
TNHunter
It’s fine to prune to a preferred shoot. I would wait until you know it can withstand wind damage (shoots on mine break off all the time) and frost damage.
I always do a two trunk system when I can. It’s another layer of insurance against freeze damage in the winter.
This video does a great job describing pruning for the first 4 years.
Standard practice for commercial vineyards is to let all the shoots grow unpruned the first year after planting to encourage root development. The following winter, we prune one shoot to two buds and remove everything else. In spring, one shoot is selected to start forming the trunk once the new growth has hardened off a bit because, as @EmptyBadger said, shoots break off easily when young.
Since you’re able to give more attention to young vines than we can as commercial growers, you may be able to encourage enough growth this year to start trunk formation. That depends on the vigor of your plants. A spindly cane that doesn’t reach the first wire on your trellis by fall usually isn’t worth keeping for a trunk.
Awesome advice, thanks @GrapeNut! This is exactly what I did in year one, but solely by chance and laziness. My vines are looking very healthy and strong, probably because they had the leaves to build a good root system.
@GrapeNut Thoughts on irrigation? I know that some vineyards do just enough to keep the vines alive, helps encourage the roots to go deeper and be more drought tolerant.
Saying that irrigation is a complex topic would be an understatement. There are people that promote what you said and irrigate less often but deeply, but some of the vineyards i manage were irrigated their whole lives and have sent roots 20 feet out from the trunk and 10+ feet deep. In areas that get a good amount of summer rain, irrigation is generally unnecessary. That’s not the case in much of California, despite a lot of wishful thinking and marketing hype. It depends on the soil type and depth, rootstock choice, variety, rainfall, and what you are doing with the fruit. Drought stressing a table grape doesn’t really provide much benefit.
like grapenut said id just let it establish itself this year, then prune it down next year to the longest cane.
Not that I have a lot of experience, but I currently have one young vine with perhaps 15 shoots. What I am doing is dead heading the tips of the minor shoots but keeping the established leaves so those already opened leaves are still collecting sun for the plant. When you pinch off that growing tip it takes a number of days to send out new laterals. During that time the main spurs are growing along.