# Just basic info for anyone who cares



## theprodigy (Jan 31, 2012)

If someone can get pictures that they have or can find that would be much appreciated.

Dormant pruning- Deliberate removal of plant parts during dormacy to redirect or regulate growth also to promote growth and control fruiting and flowering in the up coming growing season.
(picture needed) Base buds- Developing from section of cordon where spur has been removed.

I might get chewed out for this. But any pruning is better then no pruning. Pruning is huge to your success as a grape grower of exceptional quality. An unpruned grapevine has hundreds on nodes. This could cause problems as this would quickly unbalance our grapevine. We need to prune to regulate the crop. There are immediate and long term effects of over cropping like low brix, reduced pigmentation in skins, and decreased synthesis of flavor and aromas. Also poor wood maturation occurs because the carbs neccessary for wood maturation have been depleted by competive fruit maturation processes. So lets avoid this people.

Dormant pruning is huge in crop control, but there is additional steps that for crop control through flower or fruit thinning cluster thinning is generally required with vines 2 years old or younger. Back to dormant pruning. dormant pruning stimulates growth by reducing the number of growing points, and hence, concentrating growth into fewer shoots. Second, pruning during periods of active growth have a dwarfing effect by reducing photosynthetic surface area. A balance between vegatative vigor and crop is neccessary to produce consistent yields of ripe fruit.

General rules 
Pruning any vegetative parts of the vine is slightly depressing to the the plant. Pruning of any sort effects the capacity.

The production of crop depresses the capacity of the vine.

The vigor on individual shoots varies inversely with the number of shoots that develope

the capacity of the vine varies directly with the number of shoots that develop.

as crop size is increased, shoot vigor is decreased.

fruitfulness of the buds varies inversely with the vigors of the shoots.

a vine can properly nourish and ripen only by certain quanity of fruit, that is it's capacity is limited by its previous history and its environment.

The fruitful buds of the vine occur most abundantly on one year old canes that arrise from two year old wood

the more erect a shoot or cane, the more vigorously it will grow.

the shoots starting farthest from the trunk are the most vigorous. (cane pruned vines) (apical dominance)

Canes with internodes of medium length usually mature their wood best and have the most fruitful buds.

A large cane or arm or vine is capable of greater production then a small one, and therefor should carry more buds, (balance is key)

well matured canes have the best-developed buds.

by bending or twisting canes or shoots, their behavior may be modified for the purpose of regulating growth or fruiting. Point here is this will often reduce the apical dominance effect and create more uniform shoot growth along the cane.

So it all comes down to balance between vegatative growth and reproductive growth.

Will come back and talk a little more about when to prune


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## TxBrew (Mar 1, 2012)

Great information, did you write that?

How do you decide which offshoots to prune? 

I read the rule of thumb is it's optimal to have a branch every distance of the palm of your hand down the length of the vine. So every 3-4" there should be a branch maximum. Is that true?


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