Pruning 1 Year Old Grapevines | Spur and Cane Pruning in Year 1

Pruning grapevines can be a daunting task, especially if you're unsure of what to do that first time around. Today we're showing you how we prune 1 year old grapevines in order to support long term vine health and production.
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[@matthewevans5130]

This was excellent and your examples were fantastic. Thank you!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful Matthew. We had a hard time finding video content that addressed the first year's pruning for both Spur and Cane pruned vines, so we're hopeful this can answer a few questions we've received in the past.

[@AmzBackyardOrchardandVineyard]

We are literally in our vineyard right now when this video posted! You guys are on point with pruning! We've now got five varieties of grapes in our backyard vineyard. Pruning is intimidating at first, but incredibly rewarding! Thanks for all the guidance. We are hopefull for a great fruitful & growing season here in the desert southwest.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Aaron. It's definitely time to wrap up the pruning and get ready for production. I imagine you're seeing the same, but we have a lot of trees already pushing new growth with the nice weather this past week. Hopefully they hang in there during the cold snap this week!

[@AmzBackyardOrchardandVineyard]

My thoughts exactly. We pruned our red flames last weekend during our 'warm wave' before the cool down this past week. I noticed today our flame grape is already pushing sap out of the cutting. Hello spring!

[@marycampbell4160]

Wow!! Thanks for sharing I got a lot of pruning to do

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

It's just about time to wrap that up. Yesterday we were walking the orchards and the early bloomers are all pushing out new growth!

[@enoughenough5437]

Brilliant!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you enjoyed this one!

[@jamesedwards2687]

Thanks for an excellent presentation

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you found this one useful!

[@73elperro]

Excellent video,thank you for sharing your knowledge!!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you enjoyed this one!

[@barbaradowling-lewis7036]

Really helpful and easy to follow. Thanks.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you enjoyed this one!

[@slamboy66]

At 3:49 Cuddle Tom calling for a hug .

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ha, yeah! Cuddle was in this one as well as at least 1 of our new Roos. It's beginning to sound like a farm around here!

[@breakingburque2200]

It’s that time of year again, the gardens will come alive soon.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Boy, you sure have that right! We were walking the orchard yesterday morning and see a lot of new activity already.

[@marschlosser4540]

I live 100 miles south of the kids, Duane and Miz Lori. They're warmer than in the canyon, but there's a ton of kohlrabi, radishes (black and reds), wolfberry (native goji), peas, and so on all producing. Onions galore! Garlic (Creole ajo rojo). One tomato in a 25 gallon tub that produced all winter, 2 eggplants same till they got burned by a freeze (they're recovering), Kyoto winter carrots. I'm gettin' tirred just thinking about it. It's spring here, and like spring everywhere, we're expecting snow this week, LOL. Happy gardening!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@marschlosser4540 that is a heck of a Winter harvest there Martin!

[@marschlosser4540]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm All things in their time. And, ASAP, more beets and white turnips need to go in. While cane pruning the grapes, I saw some buds breaking. the garlic is about 18" tall, and most scallion onions taller than that. The garlic scallions (small pieces planted for scallions) are starting to break ground.

[@Kylosgrande]

Great video!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Pretty cool to see that growth on these vines from last year, huh?

[@Kylosgrande]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm amazing! Your doing like 2 years of growth per year, I guess long sunny days help but you also started with lifeless sand so pretty amazing

[@nordvin]

Great video! I also grow grapes in the northern regions. This is a very interesting activity!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you enjoyed this one. We have some unique challenges out here and I imagine quite a bit different from what you're used to seeing!

[@nordvin]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Yes, I agree. We use slightly different methods, but your challenges are really very original and interesting!

[@jaredmccutcheon5496]

I live in wine country in California. The central coast is often referred to as the “New Napa” because we are surrounded with vineyards. You can see examples of the different pruning methods everywhere you go, especially right now when they’re pruning. There are some older dry farmed vineyards left that prune to about shin/knee height every year but leave 3-4 trunks, much like you prune a fruit tree to have scaffolding and then the grapes form from the new growth, those ones don’t even need support because the main trunks are 3-4” in diameter. The vast majority of growers use the standard post and wire support system and run drip irrigation along the bottom wire. One of my customers has a small vineyard, about 32 acres, where he raises a special clone of Cabernet grapes that aren’t even named, they’re just clone number ??? whatever, lol, but he has an interesting system where he plants 2 plants about 2-3 feet apart and angles them toward each other and they form an X and then he anchors them to the support. He said it’s a method developed in France or somewhere and the clone he has was developed for that type of system. It allows you to double plant the vineyard and effectively doubles an acres output. They are pretty cool looking when you drive through the vineyard and look at them all crossed in rows. He’s one of only 2 vineyards that has that particular cultivar of Cabernet either in California the USA, can’t remember which. He gave me some cuttings about 5 years ago and I chopped them up and planted 240 of them and now I have a little baby vineyard of them too, lol. I need to learn how to make wine now I guess…..although I don’t really like wine, 😂🤷‍♂️

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Jared, this is incredible! Not only to hear of that growing method with those Cabernets, but that you have so many of them growing and you're not making any wine!!!! So, what are you doing with the fruit?

[@jaredmccutcheon5496]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm My free ranging chickens usually take care of the fruit just as it’s about to get ripe, lol, along with the hoards of starlings and every other bird around that eats fruit. The big vineyards have propane cannons to scare the birds off so they just come and pillage the small guys orchards and vineyards, lol. One of these years I’ll decide to try my hand at wine, but that won’t probably be till some of my fruit trees are producing enough that I can make some blends. I’m not a fan of traditional wine but I do enjoy a sweet wine made with grapes and different stone fruits. One of my all time favorites was a white wine a friend made with apricots. It was amazing.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@jaredmccutcheon5496 ah, so if sweet wines are your beverage of choice, you'll really like blackberry and mulberry. The mulberry wine we just finished is by far our favorite and it hasn't even matured yet. Peach was incredible as well, so I'm not surprised to hear that apricot was a solid one.

[@jaredmccutcheon5496]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Yes, mulberry wine sounds amazing! So does peach for that matter, lol.

[@cricketthoffman9499]

I grew up in the central coast. Perfect place for grapes.

[@danapietruszynski1045]

How do you guys protect the vines and base against frost damage? I’m growing two varieties of grapes on either end of a 8’ x 4’ metal arch. Any recommendations n trimming strategies is treating appreciated. My current intention is trimming more for looks. You guys rock!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Dana! We don't do anything to protect against frost. They do need some chill hours for fruit set, so unless you're extremely cold you should be just fine. That being said, the ground does have about 4-6 inches of woody mulch around the base. As for your vines on the archway, we actually have a before and after of pruning we did with our Canyon Grapes on a pergola that we're going to post on Instagram/FB. Take a peak at our page later today to get an idea what we're doing. The plan is to prune back to that same spot you'll see the canes cut to each season. Hopefully that gives you some ideas.

[@nancydevlin65]

Pfrt..... Petrifying, honestly! I'm only growing a little white inside the polytunnel but I have no idea what I'm doing pruning wise! I'll keep following yourself progress! Thank you for sharing.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Pruning is always a tough one, especially on young trees and vines. To give you an idea of the result - we currently have 4 gallons of Syrah and 7 gallons of Zin from these vines that are in the secondary fermenters right now. We still haven't harvested all of the Cab, but we've put 2, 5 gallon buckets of grapes into the freezer so far, so we're probably looking at around 3 gallons of Cab this Fall as well. That pruning makes all the difference. Good luck with those vines of yours!

[@pd8559]

Muscadine is what I have to grow here as the humidity does a number on European grapes. I have one European just to compare the disease pressure. I plan on training mine up near six feet then ten feet total horizontal spread. I used to make a tasty farm wine with just welches Concord grape juice. A bit ghetto as I used what I had on hand, bread yeast but I have that and one honey mead recipe that go great with that yeast making very tasty results while the rest I have use various brewing yeasts. I still have a few frozen concentrate sleeves of welches in the freezer needing using up.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ooh, now muscadines are something we have not tried before. I've been told the lack of humidity here is the issue with those, so funny how things vary with climate! No shame with that Welches hooch. I bet it still tastes fantastic!

[@pd8559]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm with Welches Res Concord juice try it yourself, the recipe is simple assuming you you’ve made wine or beer before and sanitize your equipment to ensure success. For every quart of 100% real juice, not cocktail mixes or other part juice concoctions, you stir in a cup or white granulated sugar and a quarter teaspoon of dry instant bread yeast. Tastes good and in a pinch my wife used it in Beef Bourguignon as the red wine ingredient saving having to go to the store to get some.

[@PP-rq7ly]

It must be great having a husband doing that kind of job because I love plants. Like living in paradise. Countryside is so beautiful.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

It really is hard to beat having productive plants all around you!

[@PP-rq7ly]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you for the head up. I'm fed up with the depressing societal toxicity in the city, and that makes me wonder about the countryside.

[@timkundrat1703]

I really appreciate your videos. Most of the info I'm finding about Syrah says it does well with spur pruning. Have you found cane pruning works well for your Syrah?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

This is a great question and we are still trying to figure out the best route for our Syrah. The vines have a tendency to break VERY easily, so we're changing to a spur prune on them to help with that. Next year will be our first year with them pruned that way, so we'll have to see how that goes from a production standpoint.

[@titanart6225]

Do you have a video on setting up your trellis for your grapes? Are those T-posts with pvc?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great question and we did film the installation. I'll link that for you here; kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2fPfXh_obSLm6c

[@Ted...youtubee]

Backyarder here. Planted 5 different table grapes. 2nd year now. Thought maybe i cane pruned wrong for first year, but did it just like you demonstrated. They are now alive and growth for spring is incredible. Now I'm wondering, do i thin them out to 2-3 canes whilst growing or leave it next dormancy! Also, on 2nd year dormant stage, do i cut back to crown or leave one long spur? Subbed because your demo is clear.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey there Ted. Glad to hear your vines are doing well in their 2nd year. As for pruning, you'll want to wait until dormancy to make any cuts. Vines will push a lot of sap during the growing season which can cause problems if you're making large cuts while it's flowing. You have it right in narrowing it down to 2-3 canes going into next year. 2 you'll lay down as your primary cordons for next year's growth and the extra you can cut back to several buds just in case one of the 2 primaries don't come out of dormancy. Doing this each year will eventually establish the head of the vine.

[@Ted...youtubee]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you. Appreciate your reply and you taking the time.

[@stephaniewarren4197]

Thank you so much! does this apply to all grapes?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Stephanie. It applies to all production grapes (wine and table grapes), but you can alter how you prune if productions is not your primary goal. We don't prune this way for our 2 grapevines trained to our arbors as the focus there is to cover the arbor each season as opposed to grape production.

[@Caseylawton]

My Thompson grape went absolutely wild it's first year. I've got numerous branches going both ways 10-15ft long for each of them... Should I shorten the length of them too? Or just prune it down to 1-2 primary vines like you did?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

If it's a new vine you should prune it back to a single "trunk". You can run 1-2 "cordons" from it if you'd like, but establishing the head on a cane pruned vine is what you're really trying to accomplish with that first pruning.

[@valerieburchett4956]

❤

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks Valerie! Glad you enjoyed this one.

[@paulphuong8351]

Great teaching Sir! May I ask where have you bought vines and how much have you paid for such qty? TKZ

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We bought the cabernet grapes from a local grower, RSI Growers, who we contracted with to bring those in. I believe they were $20 each on our contract pricing. The others were bare root purchased online at groworganic.com. I don't recall the price on those, but around $10 each.

[@marschlosser4540]

OK, back to the vines. Both have been in the ground over a year, now. Nothing under pencil thickness and the upper branches got to go. I did get a good cutting off the Red Flame but not the Thompson (too skinny). Next year! I wind up giving rooted cuttings away. Figs, the Violette kicked the bucket. Too many visits by the dog, and I didn't catch it in time. But, ASAP, when they come available, there's going to be another in the yard. Hasta, kids!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Martin. I'm surprised to hear you didn't have much in the way of cuttings from the Thompson. Usually that's the vine that has some of the larger vines in our experience. And to lose a VDB, that's a REAL bummer.

[@marschlosser4540]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm It happens. I don't fertilize the first year and the Thompson's bed had been used for 2 years prior for veggies. Sowbugs/rolly pollies probably took their toll. The Violette will be replaced. A sad loss but as God wills not as I will. They both should do much better this year thanks to God for the rain (sometimes it pays to live in the mountains LOL). hasta!

[@timhansen6570]

Question: What time of the year are you doing this pruning? I assume it is the following spring before the leaves bud out?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Yes, we usually prune our vines in February before bud break.

[@cricketthoffman9499]

I have a Cabernet Sauvignon in a pot. A very large one. I have to use a pot because I don’t have land. I live in a high desert Zone 9 area. My Cab has been very happy and is a first year. The vine is on an upright V shaped trellis. (Remember I said the vine was happy? It covered the trellis). I have two questions. First is when do they go dormant? The second is does your trimming pertain to all trellises. Thanks you so much.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Crickett! First off, glad to hear that vine is doing well for you. That's not always the case for trees or vines in confined spaces! As for pruning, this technique we're showing here is geared more towards traditional trellising vs what you're describing. Just keep in mind that Cabs will produce best when pruned back to a spur each season. What I would do is select 2 solid vines this Winter (once the vines has lost it's leaves which usually occurs for us here in December/January) and cut them back to the spot you will wind up pruning back to each season. From here you can allow them to grow up the trellis each season and then cut back to 2-3 new buds the following dormant season. Hopefully this makes sense!

[@cricketthoffman9499]

It did well over the winter despite the odd snow we got, and is growing like crazy. I have berries developing. Thank you for your help.

[@thedudefromU]

Brand new grower here. My first 2 vines went in the ground 2 weeks ago. Could you explain why you made 3 foot and 6 foot wires? Why dont people grow grapes on a lattice for examples. Or train them to grow over a patio? Thx for your content :)

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great question and we have them growing over pergolas and along a chain link fence here. The challenge is it's hard to prune for production in those systems which is why every commercial orchard grows on similar trellising. The 3' and 6' wires are traditional placement that allows for easy harvesting of ripe clusters. All of the clusters will form on the first 1-2' of new growth, so essentially at waist to chest height for harvesting.

[@TheFatTheist]

How do I determine which variety should be cane pruned and which should be spur pruned? I have thompson, princess, flame, chardonney, Zinfandel, and black Monukka.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Alan! There are a few resources online, but we have experience with most of these and are doing the following; Spur Pruned - Flame and Cabernet Cane Pruned - Thompson, Black Monukka, Zin, Syrah We have used spur pruning on the Black Monukka and they still performed ok. My understanding is Zin can also be pruned either way. I'm not sure on the Princess and Chardonney.

[@TheFatTheist]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you so much!

[@mklover9457]

Which pruning method is best for Black magic and UVA Italia grapes,, Cane or Spur?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Oh boy, I really have no idea. I've never heard of those varieties before.

[@patriciarobson8437]

When is the best time to plant grapes in southern Arizona?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Patricia. The best time for planting grapes is Fall through early spring (March). Usually you can find them bare root during the Winter season and that's prime time for planting.

[@emmagryglak3284]

I purchased a property with neglected grapevines. Some of the shoots felt to the ground and grew roots. What do I do? Can I prune it come winter? What can I actually prune now in July?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey there Emma. You didn't mention where you're located, but generally speaking it's best to wait until Winter when the trees are dormant to prune. During the growing season sap is running heavily through the vines to support vine growth and pruning will lead to sap running out from the cut and along the trunk. While it probably won't kill the vine, it's possible. Side note, those shoots that fell to the ground and starting to grow roots can be transplanted and will make new vines for you!

[@danielfisch655]

Great information and thank you for sharing.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks Daniel. Are you starting to see growth push out on your trees? The apples, peaches and mulberries are all showing signs of life these days!

[@danielfisch655]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm all of our trees, thank God are coming out of dormancy. Just need to finish picking and eating our citrus in the next few weeks.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@danielfisch655 good to hear. Fingers crossed, we'll have some citrus next Winter. Nothing quite like it!

[@mitchelljenkins8209]

Where do you get your awesome taper tool??

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We picked this on up on Amazon. It's a bit pricey, but there are a lot of other options on there. We figure it needs to stand up to a lot with everything we have growing, so we bit the bullet on the nicer tool. I'll link to the one we purchased for you here; amzn.to/3J0WTUm

[@gandharaorganicfoods]

Is it mandatory to prune grape's vines when they are dormant or can we prune them in spring March n April? My Grape's plants will be 1 year old this april and they are growing in length vigorously with leaves as well. Should i prune them like you did in this spring or not? I just tied them with rope from the roof as i don't have wires like your's. Please help

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I would not attempt any major pruning once the trees have broken dormancy. In our experience, sap runs very heavily through grapevines during the growing season and you may be inviting disease in a cut that doesn't heal over quickly. The good news is, your vines are young and will continue to push new growth for you while continuing to put down stronger roots. At this point in the game, that root growth is still the most critical thing. You can always prune back nice and heavy come Winter for future production.

[@gandharaorganicfoods]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm so from your experience; i should not take this risk of pruning grape's vines when they broken dormancy and wait till November when they are in dormancy Right.??

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@gandharaorganicfoods that's correct. If it were me, I would wait until they go dormant again later this year.

[@wethen5480]

Where does your water supply come from? Thanks

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We're on a private well here. I'll link to a video we did a while back explaining our water situation if you're interested. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3WQppZ-i7Omm6c

[@kylanvanemmerik9397]

Ok, so you prune it this way in the beginning to develop a strong trunk. In future years, do you allow some of those spurs to grow vertically to the 6ft mark and allow those to grow like the cordons on at the 3ft line? Or, will you cut it back like this every year? Also, love the blooper reels 🤣😂 Like always, thanks for the info!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Kylan. It depends on which technique you're referring to, but they both essentially grow from the 3 foot line to the 6' bar each season. With spur pruning you prune back to the first 2-3 buds on each spur every season. With cane pruning you choose 2 canes to lay down on the 3' wire each season. With almost no exception, all of the fruit then forms between 3 - 6'.

[@kylanvanemmerik9397]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm ok, thats interesting. I guess I never knew how fast those grape vines grow

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@kylanvanemmerik9397 we've had Thompson vines grow 24 feet in a season with no problem. It's crazy to see how well they do in the right environment.

[@kylanvanemmerik9397]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm oh wow!! I did NOT know that! Lol thats crazy!

[@joshua511]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I don't quite understand this. If you have 2 branches each going sideways at a height of 3', there's no leader to get up to the 6' height, right? Or is that a different technique where the trunk goes to 6' and there are two branches at 6' and two branches at 3'?

[@rokashwa6815]

what is the importance of backup trunk & why you didn't prune it ???????

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great question Ro. The primary reason is to ensure the main "trunk" actually takes. It doesn't happen to us often, but sometimes that primary trunk either doesn't emerge out of dormancy, or it gets damaged somehow. This ensures we have success going into the first production season.

[@tertertv3708]

Can i have grapes cuttings?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Sorry, but we donate all of our viable cuttings to a local nursery for propagation.

[@AmzBackyardOrchardandVineyard]

I've got to get me one of those taping guns! That goes with my K.I.S.S rule lol

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ok, the K.I.S.S rule would be???

[@stacienicosia5150]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I think that would be Keep It Stupidly Simple

[@AmzBackyardOrchardandVineyard]

Exactly that, keeping gardening projects simple 😎

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@stacienicosia5150 now that is a rule I can follow!! :)

[@chetnash5991]

Are you rooting those cuttings? We need Wine!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Yeah, I know what you mean with that! This year we're donating all of the cuttings to Reid at RSI Growers. He has some old rootstocks that need to be used up. I'm not sure what we'll do for those in the future. They're pretty easy to find online on the cheap.