Grape Cutting

The sun peeked out today while cooking horn soup, and so it was a good time to dive into pruning the grapes.

Usually we wait until Feb, but it was so cluttered and shabby, it needed done sooner.

As soon as the leaves are off, the vines are ready to be cut.

We pruned back to just the main vine.

Much tidier and clean looking. Never mind all the leaves in the background...

Interestingly, the vine starts out in the garden house are still green - and they've been dry for weeks while we were out in Wyoming...

The porch is much better looking, too.

All ready for winter.

Hard to believe it was like this just a few weeks ago...

Well, the grapes are green so it was a few months back.

Oh, those good ole summer days...

Keep on Cutting

We were on a roll, with all the woodcutting today, so when it was done... it was on to pruning the grapevines!

You can see they have canes all over. Pruning last year was so productive, we're going to do it every year.

Really isn't alot to it. We just clip off all except the main vine.



We have saved a bunch of the canes from the three best vines, and are eager to try rooting them in the spring.

We've rooted new green clippings, but never tried to root the wooden ones. They say this is the best way.




Here's the first vine after cliping - much cleaner! We left the longest canes, and began training them on the stair handrail.

All the other clippings are supposed to be saved for "decorations" and wreaths. Hmmm.





On most of the canes we left the first bud or two - where we wanted new canes to grow out in the spring.

We clipped the canes right off completely where we didn't want any additional growth.

It is amazing out tough and simple these vines are - especially when they produce so much sugar from sunlight. Grapes are alot of fun - especially here in the NorthWest, where the soil and sun are perfect.

Now we are excited to see what happens in the spring!