Pruning a Damaged Old Vine

Jake Neustadt - Vineyard Manager at Bedrock Wine Co. - prunes a damaged head-trained old vine planted in 1905 in Sonoma.
Shot & edited by Matt Nelsen

[@paydn202]

thank you. my mom gave up on her grape vine because it was dying so quick and i told her we can fix it, its just a little research. now im confident for this season

[@MoonAndTheMexican]

No other videos were showing me how to tell the difference with healthy vs. dead wood. Thank you! I have a 50 year old grape vine that I'm attempting to cut back. It's so hard to know where to start!

[@inambaguum]

So question: if you have that much vigor in that vine with so few positions, why would you not prune to a longer spur (say 4 or 5 buds) on the existing positions while new positions are being established elsewhere? Wouldn't that give the vigor somewhere to go and help balance out the vine in the mean time?

[@bedrockwineco.4022]

Hey there! Here's a response from Jake: "That is a very good thought from a vigor management perspective. We don’t like to leave longer spurs because that can lead to a congested fruit zone with each shoot carrying clusters all coming from the same spur. An alternative would be to leave a “kicker cane,” which is a cane of 8+ buds somewhere on the vine. This will disperse the vigor during early shoot growth and then it can be removed sometime in spring."

[@inambaguum]

@@bedrockwineco.4022 Thank you for the response. That makes good sense. Keep up the great videos...I've really been enjoying them.

[@pablogc2008]

Nice video! I have one question. I have a 10 yr old vine at home over the porch. I am going to make reforms in my house and the porch will be 3 ft lower. Can I drastically prune the plant to get new growth at the level that I need it? Thank you so much!

[@BlackJesus8463]

These vines are old af. lol

[@nancysewell769]

"Prune as usual" doesn't help a newbie. What is the goal of each cut? Why are there no wires? How will the new canes grow--up or down? Will you trim them off at a certain length? What is the variety of the plant you're pruning?

[@BlackJesus8463]

Why didn't you watch part 1 first?

[@chano399]

If I were pruning that old vineyard, I would first cut any non-producing arms with one of those new small chain saws, or a Makita battery portable saw. Next I will follow with hand pruners. This method will improve vine vigor. Converting to wire will be easier later if installing wire warrant it.

[@bedrockwineco.4022]

Hey Nancy! Sorry for the delay. I agree that you might want to watch the first old vine pruning video, as this one is a bit more specific on repairing a damaged vine, so it skips over some of the basics covered in the first one. These are old head-trained vines, so they're pruned as self-supporting systems, with no wires. Jake's pruning last year's positions back to two bud spurs - so he selects one of the two canes from the two bud spur last year, then cuts one to two buds, and the other to no buds. The cane growth will vary based on positioning on the arm, and it also depends on variety - this vine is likely Muscadelle, but it's a mixed white block, and it's hard to say for sure in the winter with no fruit or leaves/growth. Hope this helps clarify a bit!

[@SaintCoemgen]

Also see on this same topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zn7Wo2qIot2qo5o