Pruning Advice/Information!

LancYorkYankee · 31-01-2007, 17:47

Chav1, I said pruning not . . . okay whatever.

Do any of you guys grow grapes, blueberries, blackberries? Wondering when you do your pruning. I just finished mine. It took me ~4 hours with all the fruit trees too. I have books to guide me but just never sure I'm doing it right. Any thoughts?

Brian

cherokee · 31-01-2007, 18:03

Jim usuallly does ours round about oct /nov. hes got all his info from books but we still seem to get some lovely fruits infact im just using up some of our last few that i stuck in the freezer for various smoothies, and last year we had some lush strawberries,only thing with them im lucky to see them reach home lol!!!

Billcat · 31-01-2007, 19:40

LancYorkYankee,

I've never been quite certain that I am doing the pruning correctly, either. However, I worry a lot less about it than I used to, as the tress and bushes seem to produce better even if my pruning technique is less than optimal. If I don't get the job done, production drops.

I believe that a less-than-perfect pruning is far better than none at all?

LancYorkYankee · 01-02-2007, 01:20

Thanks Billcat, I tend to have good production and all but sometimes I feel like I'm just hacking away!

glasgow guy · 02-02-2007, 18:17

I grow grapes up my kitchen wall and I always cut them back to the shape of a hand opened up if you will...so you have for instance 5 shoots ( thats what I have)on each vine but I will only cut them back to where next years new shoots will start from...once you have done it a few times its quite easy..its also great in the summer when they are full height and have spread across the whole of the walll and full of fruit....looks really nice...and they taste amazing, better than the supermarket stuff...I also grow carrots in old wellies but thats another thing...

LancYorkYankee · 05-02-2007, 17:54

Glasgow Guy, that's what I'm trying to do with my lower grouping of grapes. Building and arbor for them to grow across to get full sun exposure.

My upper grapes are set to the basice Kneiffin (sp?) system of 4 branches to each plant. These I've had growing for 5 years now. They produce very small fruits.

The lower plants were put in just 2 years ago and last year, 2 of the planmts produced very nice clusters of large grapes. Interesting how different it can be when they're only ~100 yards away from each other!

Brian

glasgow guy · 05-02-2007, 20:34

I know what you mean, this season I had a great crop of fruit from one where they were all of a healthy size and quantity and the other were alot smaller and less of...but both were fed exactly the same feed and at the same times..and both get exactly the same sun so....but I dont mind...the fact I grew them was enough for me...