No you don't just prune a few buds past the fruit. The fruit needs the leaves on that 6ft of cane to feed the fruit. Potential yield is proportional to the amount of sunlight intercepted by the leaves. So you can't just limit each cane to a few leaves and expect a high yield of sweet fruit.

There are reasons to summer prune or remove leaves around the bunches, such as to aid disease control. And it doesn't help to have leaves shading other leaves. But you need enough leaves to intercept the available light. Total yield is proportional to total light intercepted. So if you spread the canes out on a wider trellis you can leave more bunches of grapes.

Thanks Fruitnut (been a while). I am also assuming this is cultivar dependent? I am growing valiant and niagra (the only ones that are really producing) and they have a LOT of extra growth. The niagra are slightly bitter and small and the valiant produces well.

It sounds like you are saying no pruning, but at the same time lake sure the vines arent too crowded?

You can prune some. Extra leaves that don't increase light interception don't help and can hurt by reducing air circulation. My trellis is about 6-8ft off the ground. So I trim the ends of the canes to keep them off the ground. Leave enough foliage to feed the fruit that you leave. I usually remove one bunch per cane from cultivars that set two per cane.

Canadianplant, what sort of grape do you get from your Valiant? Mine turned out to be tiny sour grapes full of seeds, just like a wild grape.

Daren

canadianplant, check the video I posted earlier. You can also look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO4MG8-Rl58 to learn how severely to prune.

Lengths of cut depends if you are cane pruning or spur pruning. If cane pruning you prune the canes to 5-15 buds and depending on the vigor of your plant perhaps 20-80 buds total (80 buds would be like for a massive, fully mature concord but you generally spur prune concord).

For spur pruning, in cold areas you can leave the spurs long (3-5 buds) until you see how they fruiting buds survived the winter. Then you cut the spurs back to 2 fruiting buds. (I did this yesterday and today). Again 20-80 buds.

Rough rule is 5 shoots (buds) per foot of canopy. So planted at 8', you would have 5 x 8 = 40 buds. This equals 4 x 10 bud canes (cane pruning) or 20 x 2 bud spurs. Another rule is for 3.6 lbs or more of pruning after winter you leave 80 buds.

Each bud may send out 2 shoots. 1 earlier than the 2nd. It is a strategy in case frost kills the first you have the 2nd as a backup. Once risk of frost is over (now) you break off the weaker/smaller shoot so that only 1 strong shoot comes from each bud.

After flowering and fruit set you generally remove all but 1 bunch of grapes per shoot so that you get optimal size and sugar. You can also "brush" the baby grapes to thin them or cut off the end of the bunch - this helps with size as well. You need about 15-22 full size leaves to feed 1 bunch of grapes so never trim your shoots shorter than that.

Also, what zone are you? There are some other nice zone 3-4 grapes than Valiant! If you are willing to lie your vines down each winter your options even increase further.

BriAnDaren Ottawa, what are you growing? I'm not far from you.

brian - They are sour, but not overly sour, and yes, there are seeds. They are a seeded type. They arent too bad for fresh eating.

Canuk - been a while! I am in zone 3/4 (the yard is about zone 4). I dont have the room to lay down large trellis. I bury the bottom of the vines in mulch and hope for the best. I have tried vanessa (dead), Himrod (killed 4 of them), kay grey (killed). This winter was abnormally warm, so my usually non producing grapes had a few buds survive (Himrod, Niagra (which produces mild or not) and the most shocking, a zone 6 "flame seedless".

Basically I train a bunch of canes to be low to the ground so I can bury them in leaves. I manage to get some bud survival this way, without having a lot of dead wood to cut int he spring. All said and done I have 8 grape vines, but I am DYING to get a hold of trollhaugen and especially sommorset. I would do anything to have sweet grapes here.

Also, thanks for the video. At first i was bored to hell, then the guy found his stride. Ill have to watch more.

Also, I should say, I dont really follow any real training method...

http://vigneschezsoi.ca/

They are rooted cuttings so not as great as bare root but not expensive and still available.

Perhaps try also Brianna, Roland and some of the other hardy ones.

As for lying down I don't mean the trellis. Take the vine off the trellis and lay it down so it gets covered with snow. I grow multi trunks and lie them down each year. Every year I let a couple replacements grow in case the main trunk dies back (like cane pruning). The 1 year old cane is also easier to lie down because of its flexibility vs a 3+ year old trunk. I have room for multiple trunks because I use a Geneva double curtain. If you have a lot of dieback take a look at the "fan" training system.

Hungry, I'm growing Interlaken, Valiant, Vanessa and Flame.

Last year raccoons harvested most of the Valiant. We even bagged the grapes in ziplock bags, but that was a waste of time. They ate the grapes and threw the bags all over the yard for us to clean up. Just as well, the grapes weren't really edible.

I'm hoping to taste Vanessa and Flame this year. Don't really know what to do about the raccoons though.

Daren

How much has your "flame" survived? This is the first year I have any cane survive above ground

The Flame is in a pot and overwinters in the garage. The others are in-ground but protected by one of those temporary garage/shelters. The canes never get winter damage. In the picture below, Vanessa is in front of the pond, to rear left is Flame and Valiant is rear right.