Trimming Grapes

Grapes, we learned, are best trimmed in winter while they're dormant.  (If they're cut while it's warm the sap just runs and runs out of the vines.)  

 

 

Since we had moved to the farm in late spring, we didn't have a chance to trim the grapevines that first year - though they were badly overgrown and interwoven with huge weeds.  That winter I cut them back - hard.  Basically I left a single vine sticking up out of the ground.  When I told my dad what I'd done he worried I may have killed them. 

 

 

But they came back strong as ever.  In fact, we even got a few handfuls of grapes this fall!

 

The lingering cold weather gave us another chance to trim them back before spring sets in for real.

 

 

Though they were not as bad as when we'd moved in, they still needed a good haircut.

 

 

Fynn helped drag vines toward the trailer.

 

 

Then he hopped in for a ride to the brush pile.

 

 

DD made a grapevine wreath.

 

 

And hung it on the outhouse door.

 

 

All done for this year.  I know, I know, it looks as if there's nothing left.  But, we've discovered, grapes do best with a good, hard trim every year.  Too many vines and too many leaves actually keep them from producing fruit.  Hopefully this year we'll have enough of a crop to make preserves . . .

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful spring!