Pruning/Training Grapes on an Arch?

Hello All,

Thanks in advance for any assistance both now and in the future! I've gotten good info here for years, when a forum post came up in Google, etc., but this is my first time registering and asking a question of my own.

Background (you can totally skip this if you're not curious haha): We moved into a new house last April. One of the first things I did is plant a couple table grape vines on the corners of the broad side of the shed. I had intended to build a nice wooden pergola between them early this Spring; unfortunately, given the cost of lumber right now, I'm going to take a cheaper option - a cattle panel arch. It will be something like 8-10' across and 4' deep. I plan to put a bench under it, and I've built raised garden beds around where the arch will be, such that it will be really pretty to look at from the house, and even better as a place to sit and enjoy the garden view.

Anyway - I'm having a hard time finding any specific info on how to prune grapes vines grown on an arch, pergola, etc. to maintain good fruit production in this less orderly but more aesthetically pleasing approach. I understand the basic premise of how/why to prune grapes; I've grown just one vine before and used a simple kniffin-ish approach. I feel like this has to have come up before - could anyone direct me to an article or forum post on the subject? Any info would be very much appreciated! Thanks for your time.

Actually, one more question - in your all's opinion, will 2 grape vines be good enough coverage for an arch of the size I described? I've purchased some cool seeds from Experimental Farm Network that might be good additions to fill it out more, if appropriate - Hablitzia ("Caucasian Mountain Spinach") and Northern Maypop (Passionflower/Passionfruit). I had been thinking to let one or both of these grow up & along the swing set, but I have been trying to think of other places to put more of them!

Mike

I'm actually planning something very similar, myself, so I'll be watching this, because it's new territory for me, too. This week,  so far, I've built 4 raised beds and put cattle panel arbors between them, and plan to add another bed and another arbor, today - but that's going to be for my kitchen garden. I'm still trying to decide where to put my grapes, but I'm leaning toward something closer to our pond, because I think the view would be gorgeous.

Sounds like you've got a neat setup Mike.

Mike Bruner wrote:Anyway - I'm having a hard time finding any specific info on how to prune grapes vines grown on an arch, pergola, etc. to maintain good fruit production in this less orderly but more aesthetically pleasing approach. I understand the basic premise of how/why to prune grapes; I've grown just one vine before and used a simple kniffin-ish approach. I feel like this has to have come up before - could anyone direct me to an article or forum post on the subject? Any info would be very much appreciated! Thanks for your time.

I've had good production from my grapes just letting them do their thing for the most part. I used to prune the shoots to about 1 to 2 feet each, but this stimulated a lot of vigorous growth, and made pruning really time consuming each year.

Now I only prune them if things get extra crowded or if there is a super vigorous shoot that grows like crazy, but this is much less common with each year of minimal pruning. This past year I had very little pruning to do and a huge crop from the vine that has been generally unpruned for the last two years. Letting the vine crop a lot of fruit and minimizing pruning has reakly seemed to reduce future pruning to almost nothing while also maximizing a large harvest.

Actually, one more question - in your all's opinion, will 2 grape vines be good enough coverage for an arch of the size I described?

I think they'll pretty easily cover that area once full grown, after about 3 years or so. Most of my vines cover about 10 feet pretty easily, and the more vigorous varieties can cover even more. You could plant some annual vining crops the first year or two to fill in the area while waiting for the grapes to fill in, if that works for your area.

Here's a thread about my grape growing adventures.

https://permies.com/t/109696/Growing-Grapes-Naturally