Pruning
techniques for
vines on an arbor, pergola, or trellis:
There are several reasons you
may want to prune your vines on your
arbor, pergola, trellis:
-
Maximize and minimize the amount of flowers
and fruit they produce
-
Control and train them
-
Remove dead and diseased canes
-
For looks and aesthetic reasons
As a rule of thumb the best
time to prune vines is after all of the leaves
have fallen but before bud break. This is a
general rule so you should read up on your
specific vine and your gardening region. It’s also
much easier to prune when there are no leaves
because you can really see the structure of your
vine or climber.
On my grape vines I prune
twice:
-
late fall or early winter
-
late winter or early spring
The initial pruning is to get
rid of a lot of the wood and clean up the vine.
The second pruning is to prepare the vine for the
coming leaf and fruit growth. The second pruning
is more important for fruit bearing vines than
climbing vines. Too much fruit is bad because the
vine can’t produce good quality grapes and the
health of the plant will be at risk since all of
the sugar will go into fruit production. I also do
light pruning during the growing season to expose
the grapes to sunlight. This is usually just
removing a few leaves that are covering the grape
clusters. Sunlight is very important in the making
of quality and tasty grapes.
On my climbing vine I also
prune twice:
-
late fall or early winter
-
late winter or early spring
The initial pruning is for the same reason as
grape vines - to get rid of a lot of the wood and
clean up the vine. With the honeysuckle this is
really important because this vine can grow a lot
in a season and become unruly. The second pruning
is more aesthetic reasons and how I want the plant
to look and grow for the coming seasons. I will
also do some pruning throughout the growing season
if a tendril is a bit too vigorous and growing in
the wrong direction. I usually try and do this
after the flowers are finished.
