2: Encourage trunk growth

1. Choose one stem growing from each trunk to remain and mark it with ribbon.
2. Remove all unmarked growth.
3. Loosely retie the trunks to the posts.

Notes and observations
I planted my vines in the spring but didn’t prune them until late winter the following year, because the vines needed a full season to become established. Before I even picked up my pruners, I simply stood back and observed the vines.

Once I had tied ribbons on the trunks I wanted to keep, I went ahead and made my cuts. Establishing a single trunk will work, but I chose to have two because I live with chewing dogs and errant soccer balls.

3: Choose the cordons

1. Select two stems from each trunk as the permanent cordons, or arms (or four stems if you have only one trunk), and mark them with ribbons.
2. Remove all unmarked growth and shorten each cordon to 5 feet.
3. Loosely tie the cordons to the arbor.

Notes and observations
During the third summer, my vines grew to the top of my arbor, which indicated that the trunk growth was complete. That winter, I chose the cordons, or arms, to fan out across the top of the arbor. By annually trimming the cordons to 5 feet, I am able to grow four types of grapes across the top of my arbor, each one pruned to its own quadrant.

4: Maintenance prune to stimulate grape production

To spur prune:

1. Select 20 to 30 stems, which grew from the cordons (full number not shown here).
2. Create spurs by pruning the stems to two buds.
3. Remove all other growth.

Notes and observations
During the fourth summer, my vines produced their first grapes. In the fourth winter, I started maintenance pruning, or selectively cutting back the stems. When maintenance pruning, remember that grapes grow from the buds formed on the previous summer’s stems, so don’t remove all the stems or you won’t get any fruit.

To cane prune:

1. Select four stems per cordon.
2. Cut two stems back to 8 to 12 buds to create two canes.
3. Cut the other two stems back to two-bud spurs.
4. The following year, reverse the pruning by cutting the spurs, which will have grown into long stems, back to 8 to 12 buds to make a cane. Then prune the previous year’s canes back to two-bud spurs. Alternate the pruning on these spurs and canes each year.
5. Remove all other growth.

Stems can be either be spur pruned (cut short) or cane pruned (cut long), depending on the variety (ask the nursery when you buy your vines). Most grapevines respond to either method, but some vines will fruit only on buds located farther out on the cane. All vines, no matter how they are pruned, should be left with 40 to 60 buds each for good fruit production. When cordons, spurs, or canes decrease in vigor, choose new ones from the new growth.