It is now not uncommon for the vine to decorate pergolas, trellises, canopies and other elements in the garden. No wonder, because it not only grows quickly and densely to provide shade and privacy, but also produces delicious fruit. A valuable bonus that you get with the vine for garden planting. But in order for the vines to actually grow well and develop lots of grapes, proper care is important. One point that you should not neglect is pruning the plant. Beginners are probably wondering how often and when should the vines be cut? Today we will explain to you when and how to prune your grape vines in summer.
Beginners when it comes to plant pruning already know that the plants are usually cut in spring and/or autumn/winter - be it a maintenance cut or a topiary cut. But if you hear about a summer cut, you might be surprised. This is also sometimes necessary: we remind you of this, for examplePruning the tomatoesto improve the harvest. You can achieve the same effect if you prune your vines in summer.
Notice: For vines, the main pruning takes place in winter, while the tips are trimmed in spring. In summer, if necessary, the crops are thinned out and the fruit cover is thinned out.
The purpose is to get the plant to put less effort into forming new shoots so that it can concentrate on forming grapes instead. And not only that: you can lighten the plants a little toomore sunlight to the fruitpenetrate, which has a positive effect on your taste. But how do you do this correctly so that you don't cut off too much or even the wrong thing? We explain summer grapevine pruning for beginners in more detail below:
When to prune grape vines in summer?
And when do you prune grape vines in summer? Compared to other fruit-bearing plants in the garden, vines bloom relatively late, namely in June. After that, right in midsummer, is the right time for summer pruning, where you cut back certain shoots from the vine.
First of all, you don't need to cut your vines in the first year. You can even leave any pruning until the third year, because in this initial phase it is important that a strong main plant is formed and the abundance of lush greenery is a great advantage for this. At some point, however, the moment comes when this begins to be a nuisance, and not just visually or in terms of the handling of the plant. As already mentioned, it also interferes with the plant itself during fruit formation.
Once you have carried out the first main cuts and spring cuts, side shoots and shoots will automatically form and this in turn leads us to the inevitable summer cut. How is it done?
What remains, what can go?
Cut the shoots of the vines correctly
Diemiserlinessarise on the leaf axils, i.e. where the leaf grows from the shoot. When you cut your vine, you don't have to locate and remove all the shoots. They only become annoying and unnecessary when they become too long or develop the same strength as the main shoots and rob them of important nutrients. Then you can max out the vines.
Generally applies to everyone elseshoots: Leave 6 to a maximum of 8 leaves behind the last clusters when cutting the wine. Everything else can be cut off. Then take a closer look at the green mass from a distance and check the plant for shoots that grow too densely and interfere with each other or are poorly developed. You can also shorten these to guarantee the others more light.
While you're pruning your vines, take a look at them toograpes, which have begun to develop. As difficult as it may be for you, you will have to remove some of them. The weaker developed ones are superfluous, as they also unnecessarily rob the others of their strength. Even if your vine has produced a particularly large number of grapes, it is worth saying goodbye to some in order to improve the quality of the others instead. Up to 30 percent of all grapes on a plant can be cut off without having to worry about the remaining harvest.
The leaves of the vines cut in summer
Thinning out by removing some leaves is an optional care measure, but it can be very beneficial for your vines. The purpose of this step is to give the grapes more light and air. More light gives the grapes a better color (in the case of blue grapes) and stronger aromas with a little more sweetness, and the better ventilation in turn prevents fungal diseases because the leaves can dry more quickly after it rains. What needs to be taken into account?
- Only remove leaves around the grapes.
- The right time for white varieties is when the grapes turn green-yellow and transparent, for dark varieties when they turn from red/purple to blue.
- Do not expose too much light as this could cause the fruits to get sunburned (the fruit juice will start to leakto cook and they spoil). So always leave the grapes some shade. This is particularly true for vines that grow on a south side or are late-ripening varieties.
- To avoid accidentally overly radical thinning, do this two or three times within two weeks. This also allows the grapes to get used to the changed environment better and is not suddenly exposed to a lot of sunlight.
