[Community_garden] Pruning grapes. Was: Questions on urban orchard and garden at

[wade patterson]

Hi Steven,

You might look at this page and the various pages it links to about 
grapes (http://cahe.nmsu.edu/ces/viticulture/publications.html). We 
have many grape varieties here in New Mexico, some of which date back 
to the early 1600's. I don't think the technique for training grapes to 
a trellis would be all that different from winery style, just a 
question of your pruning approach. In my experience (we had four vines 
at our previous home), grapes are extremely hardy and you would be 
hard-pressed to really damage them even if you hacked at them with a 
machete. When we first moved in, my wife cut a huge vine all the way 
back, leaving about three feet of trunk coming out of the ground. I was 
sure she killed it, but the thing couldn't have been happier and 
sprouted new arms like crazy come spring. Over the next 7 years, it 
came to entirely ring a 75 X75 garden fence with great yields every 
season.

We also had a neighbor that had a single grape vine that wound around 
the perimeter of their entire yard, including a dense trellis that 
shaded a patio. They had no real experience with grapes before - they 
just pruned haphazardly as they went along over the years and the plant 
was happy as could be. Their yield was eventually so high that every 
year they would invite neighbors to come with bags and buckets to cut 
their own and take home. It was fantastic and very attractive (and good 
for neighbor relations, too).

Check out the above page, but I would say that its very hard to go 
wrong with grape vines once they are established.

Good luck!

Wade Patterson
Director of Arts and Community Development
Harwood - a creative center for community & the arts
Visit our website at www.harwoodartcenter.org & sign up for our FREE 
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