Look up hedging -- it is a common practice. I hedge my vines several times per summer to keep them within bounds. Some people also thin shoots to let more light in. There is a standard rule on how many fruit clusters you leave per shoot which I cannot remember. I have not been thinning my grape clusters due to lack of time.

Scott

Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to look it up. So far not much success but I only did the key word google thing. I think I might need to look at more targeted web sites. At least I know I can experiment with the clippers.

Thanks again,
Cindy

I copied this from the Oregon State Extention guide:

"Summer pruning

Usually 3 to 4 feet of growth per shoot is enough to ripen the crop. If plants become too vigorous, you can top or trim shoots. Laterals will be produced, but you can trim or hedge them.

Fruit thinning

If you donÂt prune vines hard enough, a large number of small, scraggly bunches will be produced. This decreases vigor and can severely stunt young plants. If too many bunches are produced, thin to one or two bunches per shoot by removing clusters when the berries are no more than 1/8 inch in diameter. Thinning bunches will improve berry size.

You also can thin the fruit clusters from vines that are adequately pruned and donÂt have an excessive fruit load; doing so will improve berry size and promote earlier fruit maturation. However, yields will be lower."

I have also read to "prune shoots back to the third or fourth leaf after fruit."

Carla in Sac

Summer pruning grapes was commonplace over 70 years ago but was given up as unnecessary, implying that it is not particulary bad if wanted for some other reason.

I grow wine, not table grapes, but I guess the game is the same. Then again, mine are trained on trellises, where there's ventilation, not up against a building. Anyway, Carla's comment above is pretty on the mark in my experience. I've only pruned in the dead of winter when they're asleep. Pruning for me is also trellis training, though. The key thing is to remember that fruit only comes on the current year's canes, and those canes only come from last year's canes. So keep that in mind when you prune.

In summer the best you can do is hedge, like Scott said. Save proper pruning for winter and for now just snip the ends enough to keep growth under control. If you want better berries, it's probably not too late to pinch off clusters, best starting from the end of the cane. The fewer the clusters, the better the ones remaining will be. There's an energy calculus involved between the fruit and the foliage. Personally, I hate cluster thinning. It seems wasteful in a way, but I remind myself of President Lincoln's concern that "there are too many pigs for the teats." if that makes any sense. :-)

Rich.

My neighbor is a premium wine producer and he limits the crop to about four tons per acre. Without summer pruning it would average between seven and eight tons. Sun needs to penetrate the vines to bring up the sugar level by the harvest. To produce wine starting at $50 a bottle, nothing is left to chance. Al

Muscadines are best pruned in very late winter, not "dead of winter." They apparently are much more susceptible to freeze damage in a severe freeze after pruning.