How to Prune Grapevines
Knowledge snippet series, about how to prune grapevines and the pruning techniques and timing for green plant maintenance, the following is a detailed explanation by the editor for you.
As everyone knows, grapes are perennial vines that require branch renewal, need to adjust the relationship between nutritional growth and reproductive growth, make the plant grow strong, maintain vigorous fruiting ability, extend the plant's lifespan and fruiting years, and achieve the goal of high yield and quality. Therefore, grapes are suitable for pruning in all seasons, especially dormant pruning. Seasonal pruning includes spring bud rubbing, summer heart removal and lateral branch treatment, autumn thinning of weak and useless branches, and solving the problem of canopy closure. Winter pruning has the largest amount, aimed at solving problems such as branch renewal and regulating tree strength and yield.
One. The Significance of Grape Pruning
Shaping and pruning is an important measure in grape cultivation, which is a scientific induction of grape plants by humans to adjust the contradictions between growth and fruiting, aging and renewal, and establish a relatively balanced unity. Reasonable pruning can lead to good growth, early fruiting, and good fruiting; it can extend the fruiting years of fruit trees and delay aging through renewal.
Pruning is to regulate the transport of water and nutrients in fruit trees, improve physiological activity, and convert nutritional growth into reproductive growth. Pruning is not just a single pruning; it is a combination of other measures to promote local and overall physiological activity through the retention of branches. Strengthen the ability of roots to absorb nutrients and water, enhance conduction, maintain tree health, and achieve annual abundant yields.
Improve ventilation and light conditions, enhance assimilation, and reduce the occurrence of diseases. Pruning can change the direction of branches, remove excess branches, evenly distribute new shoots on the trellis, fully utilize space, improve lighting conditions, and enhance photosynthetic efficiency. Only by comprehensively applying various cultivation measures based on shaping and pruning can we achieve our goals. During the pruning process, we should continuously learn, carefully observe the pruning response of fruit trees, as the saying goes, "humility is in the trees above," that is, to carefully observe the response after pruning, from practice to practice, in order to better serve agricultural production, change old concepts, establish new trends, innovate, and make progress.
Two. The Functions of Grape Pruning
In the case of natural growth of grapes, there is a relatively stable balance, that is, the aboveground and underground maintain balance. After pruning, this balance is broken, causing changes between the aboveground and roots, and between the whole and the local, and re-establishing a new balance. In grape management, any technical measure, such as fertilization and irrigation, is a process of changing the various parts of the fruit tree under the cooperation of external environmental conditions, that is, a process of transformation from quantity to quality.
1. Pruning has a dual effect on fruit trees
The object of pruning is various useless branches, but its effect is not just the pruned branches themselves, but also on the entire tree. From a local perspective, only one branch is removed, the first bud at the cut grows vigorously, but from a whole perspective, it has an inhibitory effect on the growth of the entire tree and roots. This promoting local and inhibiting overall effect is the dual effect of pruning. The promoting effect of pruning on the local is mainly because after pruning, the number of buds is reduced, changing the original distribution of water and nutrients, so that nutrients and water are concentratedly supplied to the remaining branches and buds; at the same time, pruning improves ventilation and light conditions, enhances photosynthetic efficiency, and improves the nutritional level of the remaining branches and buds.
2. Regulate fruit yield to ensure high-quality and abundant yield
Determine the yield through pruning. However, if the yield is too high and exceeds the carrying capacity, it not only affects the quality of the fruit but also affects the differentiation of flower buds and the maturity of branches in the current year, which is not conducive to the fruiting and growth in the following year.
3. Maintain a reasonable tree structure to keep the tree forever strong
The purpose of shaping and pruning is to cultivate a reasonable tree structure, conduct pruning in all seasons, adjust and maintain the tree, and keep the tree forever strong, achieving annual abundant yields and high-quality yields.
Three. Grape Pruning in All Seasons
1. Timing of Pruning
In the past, due to insufficient mastery of grape pruning techniques, winter pruning was generally adopted, neglecting pruning in all seasons. Now, the old concept has been changed, and a new pruning technique is adopted, with pruning in all seasons to solve the problem of lighting and canopy closure. Reasonably control, save, use, supplement, consume, and make the tree reach a balanced state of nutrition.
(1) Spring pruning. That is, the spring bud rubbing method, removing multiple buds, weak buds, and germinating buds to save nutrients and supply all nutrients to the remaining buds.
(2) Summer pruning. Pinching the growing tips of fruiting and nutritional branches, treating lateral branches, pinching inflorescences, and then shaping the fruiting clusters, aligning clusters, thinning clusters, and thinning berries.
(3) Autumn pruning. The task of autumn is to pinch the lateral branches again, remove dense branches, weak branches, and branches with low lignification, adjust the amount of branches, ensure light between branches, and improve lighting conditions to make the trellis permeable.
(4) Winter pruning. The pruning amount of grape winter pruning is the largest, with the most branches removed, and winter pruning is an effective method to determine the yield of the following year.
2. Pruning Standards
Determined by the variety characteristics, tree strength, tree age, trellis type, and yield. There are thinning pruning, short shoot pruning, medium shoot pruning, long shoot pruning, super long shoot pruning, double branch renewal, and single branch renewal.
(1) Thinning method: It is to remove weak and useless branches.
(2) Short shoot pruning method: That is, pruning 2-3 buds, which is for newly planted young trees and flat pruning.
(3) Medium shoot pruning method: 3-5 bud pruning, for areas lacking trees, in order to fill space and increase leaf amount, medium shoot pruning is used.
(4) Long shoot pruning and super long shoot pruning 6-12 buds, generally used on the main蔓 extension, such as small greenhouse cultivation main蔓 extension.
(5) Double branch renewal: On the basis of last year's pruning, retain 1-2 buds on each of the two branches for pruning. However, double branch renewal needs to be carried out in a situation where the main蔓 has space; otherwise, the trellis will be closed, ineffective leaves will increase, and nutrient consumption will occur.
(6) Single branch renewal: That is, cut one of the original double branches, retain one branch, and then prune the retained branch, called single branch renewal.
(7) Large renewal and small renewal: Large renewal is to cut the old蔓 from the base, retain a germinating branch, and cultivate it into a fruiting mother蔓. Small renewal is to replace a weak branch with a strong branch, keeping the tree forever young and extending the fruiting period.
How to Prune Grapevines
Four. Steps of Grape Pruning
The steps of grape pruning can be summarized in four words: three looks, two thins, one cut, four extensions, and five retentions.
1. Three looks: Look at the variety characteristics, tree strength, and relationships.
2. Two thins: Remove germinating branches, weak branches, disease and pest branches, and useless branches.
3. Three cuts: Determine the appropriate amount of branches according to the pruning standard and shorten the annual branches.
4. Four extensions: Extend the main蔓 of grapes. The longest should not exceed the second wire of the greenhouse, and the diameter of the cut should be kept at around 0.8CM.
5. Five retentions: That is, the amount of buds retained. The traditional pruning method is to retain 8-12 branches per square meter, with the most accurate bud retention being 6-8. It is better to reduce the number of branches than to retain them, that is, to retain fewer branches to allow nutrient concentration to the remaining branches. The United States and Ukraine have both learned grape pruning techniques from Japan, with the exception of filling space, the rest are pruned with a single stick, using hidden buds for fruiting, with high yield and quality, and better profits.
Five. Timing of Pruning
Pruning is generally carried out one month after defoliation, when nutrients have returned to their position. However, it is necessary to see if the variety is resistant and can survive the winter, such as red grapes, Crisen, golden fingers, white chicken hearts, etc. These need to be buried in soil for winter protection, so pruning should be done earlier or with leaves, at the end of November or early December. Other varieties are pruned from December to January.
Six. Precautions for Pruning
(1) The cut should be smooth and smooth, without leaving any burrs, and the diameter of the cut should be 1-2CM larger than the bud eye to prevent the winter bud from drying out.
(2) Protect the wound with a wound protectant or white glue.
(3) Leave a short stub when thinning large branches to prevent frostbite, and remove the short stub the following year.
(4) Avoid opposite wounds to prevent tree damage and spring bleeding, causing tree weakness.
The above is about how to prune grapevines and the pruning techniques and timing. I hope it is helpful to you!