Q: Summer pruning?

As a newbie on vine growing, I need some advice that I hope to get from you amateur/professional vine growers/producers here (Howie, Paul, Paul, Linda, etc.).

Now on the third year I am growing some Riesling vines in Stockholm. Originally I took cuttings from the ground in the vineyards in Rheingau and managed to root them at home. For the first two seasons, my three vines were growing in big pots, but before this season I planted one of them in front of a southern facing brick wall and, as you can see from the pictures, it is growing nicely and the fruit set has been quite fine.

Bunchrs40.jpg

Recently I read that one is supposed to cut the vertical shoots of the vine after the flowering, one leaf above the top bunch and then once again later during summer, a bit further up. As you might see in the picture of the vine, I have not done this. I wonder if you could tell me the reason to prune the vine above the bunches? In particular in my case, with a vine with rather limited vegetal growth, I feel I would rather keep as much leaves as possible to help the vine to assimilate the sun light and produce sugar. Also, there is not much shading of the grapes that would need to be removed. Is there some other reason to prune the vine above the bunches? Such as stimulating the ripening of the grapes?
I hope you can help me to gain some insight in this matter. Any other helpful hints are of course also most welcome.
Cheers,
Anders

the advice you have heard is for more mature vines. you'd almost be better off cutting off the fruit so the vines put their energy into creating themselves. but don't take leaves off - and regardless of whether you intend to harvest a crop, don't do so for several years.

My only observation is that they might be planted a bit too close together, but then again, I'm so far behind in my grape growing that I'm just now finishing up my posts and wire trellis, which should have been done in the Spring of '07. Yours look very healthy. Mine are getting holes eaten in the leaves by bugs.

Pie franco Riesling from Stockholm - now isn't that something!
I would not remove any leaves, in this fase the plant needs all the sunlight it can get. On the contrary, you could cut off the top - just the very top - to stimulate the growth of the side shoots. This way you get new, more efficient leaves. Just take care that the main shoot remains straight up.
Some still believe that the side shoots consume energy and therefore remove them entirely, actually it is just the other way round - after a couple of weeks a leave consumes more energy than it produces whereas side shoots provide new leaf-material.

And btw thanks again for the tip to try Oaxen. We had a very decent anniversary dinner there, very creative plates, good wine list, but the price - ouch. Mark up on wines by the glass are incredible, SEK 250 for a glass of CdR Fonsalette for example. However, bottle prices were more reasonable. We had a sap Vouvray Clos Naudin, a very opulent and mineral Sauvignon from the Steiermark and the Lopez de Heredia Rioja Tondonia Reserva 98 which was a decent match to the food (pig-head as main course...), albeit still somewhat reserved.

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the tips, I'll try cutting off the tops, even if it might be a bit late in the season. I certainly feel that some more fresh leaves would be good.

I'm glad you made it to Oaxen. My (single) visit there is one of the most memorable restaurant visits I have made. I agree about the prices, but I hope you were warned. The mark up on wine prices is a sad story in Sweden but it seems to me you were able to find some decent ones anyway. When we were there, we had the big menu and chose also to take the wines by the glass that were selected to match the menu. Mostly the choices were good and interesting, but some of them were maybe a bit too special.

Let me know if you come to Stockholm again.
Cheers,
Anders

My only observation is that they might be planted a bit too close together

Howie, this is just a single vine. What might look like vertical trunks are just seven sticks that I use to support the six vertical shoot that come from the horizontal part of the trunk. Here is a close up of the lower part that I processed a bit to make it lighter. I hope it shows the vine clearer.

To the right there is a short spur on the vine with just two small shoots. Originally I had planned to use one of these for next year's horizontal cane, but their growth is too week, so I'll probably have to use on of the longer shoots on the right part instead.
Cheers, Anders
PS. BTW, luckily, the bugs up here don't seem to have developed a taste for this newcomer yet. Just a matter of time until they do, I fear.

Anders:

I think the extreme summer pruning you read about would only be appropriate if your vines were of abnormally high vigor.
For vinifera you'll typically need at least 1.2 m of shoot (about 12 to 15 leaves) to ripen up your fruit properly. Hard to judge scale from your picture, but it looks like only two shoots are approaching that goal. I might consider dropping the clusters from the other, shorter shoots this year in favor of providing more stored carbohydrates to trunk and roots. Next year you'd probably get better, more even growth across all your shoots.
As Andy said, tipping the shoots (just cutting off the top 5 cm or so) might spur growth of laterals, which would give you new leaves... young leaves are more efficient at photosynthesis, and so an increased growth of young leaves might provide a late season spurt to get you over the finish line. Make sure that the lateral growth doesn't promote crowding and shading... this would serve to promote delayed ripening and higher disease pressures.

Really hard to say given your unique climate and site.
When do you typically get your first autumn frost there?

Cheers,

Anders, you are to be congratulated!!!! I would not want to try this up here, grin wink.

Anders, you are to be congratulated!!!! I would not want to try this up here, grin wink.

Give it another 3-5 years Bob and you'll be early harvesting overripe Shiraz!

Anders:
When do you typically get your first autumn frost there?

That seems to be exactly tonight, Bruce, for this year, that is. It can vary several weeks, but about this time of the year does not seem too abnormal.
An update about the state of my grapes: I have bought a refractometer on Ebay and measured the sugar content of the must yesterday. It now has a whooping must weight of 78 Oe Not bad! About time to harvest soon!
Cheers,
Anders