How to Prune Young Grape Vines

Sterilize your pruning shears with rubbing alcohol before and after every use to avoid spreading a disease from one vine to another.

Begin pruning a few weeks after you have planted the vine. When your shoots reach 8 to 12 inches long, remove all except one shoot. Prune the remaining vine back so that there are only three buds on the vine. Stake the remaining vine.

Train the remaining vine to the first wire, about 30 inches high. Cut the vine back to three buds if it reaches the wire. This pruning should be done after the growing period has finished, in late winter or in early spring.

Attach any vines that have grown past the wire to the wire and cut it back to four or five buds.

Prune more vigorous vines with shoots out of the sides differently. Prune all but two vines back to the primary stalk. Prune the two lateral shoots back to three or five buds each and tie them to the wire.

Prune more aggressively after the second growth season. Remove all lateral shoots other than the two primary canes you established in the first year, or choose two lateral canes that are strong and healthy if you were unable to establish them the previous year, and prune all lateral shoots except these two. Leave eight to 10 buds on each of the remaining lateral canes.

Beginning with the third year, you will need to prune differently. Your lateral canes will grow shoots. Choose one or two new canes per lateral cane and remove all of the rest. Choose strong canes about the diameter of your little finger that are close to the trunk. Prune the remaining horizontal canes back to two buds each.