Does anyone have experience with Head-Training Spur-Pruning Grapes?
I would like to do this with a table grape this spring, so I’m studying up.
Head-training spur-pruning (HTSP), aka Goblet or Gobelet, is a very old system for grapes. It produces a free-standing grapevine that looks like a small tree.
https://grapes.extension.org/head-trained-spur-pruned-training-system-for-grapes/
Since the thread is now bumped I’ll share my opinion that with grapes you can do just about anything you want but this is one of the things you can’t do. The wood is not strong enough to bear 10lbs of fruit and high winds on the kind of growth grapevines put out in a single spring. It will always need staking.
I tried something similar once and it always needed to be supported near the highest point. It wasn’t even close to being freestanding.
(What happened to Shrinkrap? Hello and goodbye. Anyway.)
In head-trained spur-pruned, aka goblet, training, a stake supports the vine from ground to head, until the vine thickens into a trunk.
By the time a wooden stake rots away, the vine is free standing.
Photos from Lodi Wine Grape Commission:
Caption: Classic 8-spur head trained vine in Burness Vineyard on the east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA
Caption: Tegan Passalacqua pruning his Kirschenmann Vineyard, leaving buds for spring growth of 2 canes at the tip of each spur
Caption: Marian’s Vineyard Zinfandel (planted 1901) with late May growth