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Training and pruning in grapes Training Being a vine crop, training is essential for grapes.

Proper and effective shape can be formed by choosing appropriate

training system, which facilitate economic maintenance of vineyard and easiness in cultural operations such as plant protection, pruning and harvesting.

Different systems of training are available in grapes and selection

of a particular method depends on vigour of vine, varietal

characters, bearing habit, sunscald problems, earliness for other

cultural operations, climatic conditions and also capacity of owner for investment.

Systems of training commonly followed in grapes include head,

kniffin, overhead trellis and bower.
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Head system
Advantages of this system are

easiness, inexpensiveness, suitability in high density planting and possibility of inter cultivation but yield per vine is usually low. This method is especially suitable for less vigorous varieties producing

fruitful shoots from basal buds such as Beauty Seedless, Delight, and Perlette. Single shoot is allowed to grow from newly planted vines, removing side shoots if
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produced and by help of stake.

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Heading back the main single stem at a height of 1.2 metres permits side shoots.

In general, four laterals at about 75 cm above ground level, in all directions are retained after removing all other shoots produced.

Later two secondaries from each lateral are allowed. Vines trained on head system have bushy shape, occupy less space and can be adopted for high density planting vineyards.
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Espalier or cordon system

Vines are trained with one or two shoots perpendicular to main stem using horizontally fixed wires.

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Kniffin system

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A four-cane system named after Mr. William Kniffin of New York who developed this method during 1850.Vine is allowed to grow single stemmed up to one meter and then two arms are allowed on either side using horizontal trellises.

Second pair of arms is allowed at 50 cm above the lower layer, thus a total of four arms are maintained per vine.

Bearing shoots are seen hanging freely without any need for tying.

Varieties like Thompson Seedless, Bhokri, Delight, Kandhari, Beauty

Seedless and Perlette respond well to this system.

Sometimes, three horizontal lines at different heights are maintained

in certain areas, the system being called as Modified Kniffin.

Main disadvantage in Kniffin system is that lower arms become unproductive after a few years.
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Overhead trellis system / Telephone system

This system is suitable for high temperature regions.

Moderately vigorous varieties

respond well to this method. Professor N. Gopalkrishnan introduced this to India during 1960 in Pune.

Vine is grown straight to a

height of 160 cm and then horizontally to an over-head canopy on 3-5 wires fixed to cross arms at 45-60 cm apart which are usually 1.4 m long mounted on vertical posts.
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Single stake system

o In this system, the vine is fastened to an upright support of a tree

such as Erythrina indica.

o When the single trunk reaches a height of 1.5 M, it is tipped and

encouraged to produce 4-5 secondary branches which themselves are going to be the fruiting branches or canes when they attain full maturity.

o From the second year onwards, the Erythrina indica plnats are
also regularly pruned twice a year at the time of pruning grapevine.

o In October pruning, the canes are headed back to 3-4 buds per
cane.

o These buds will be producing the fruiting shoots during spring and
produce crop during summer.

o After harvest of fruits during April, the October spurs together with
growths are pruned to foundation or renewal spurs viz., pruned back to a single bud.
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There after, the type of pruning given in October April is repeated every year. After three such cycles (3 years), when the main trunk of the vine becomes sufficiently thick, a strong cane is selected at the time of October pruning and retained as further extension of trunk. This extension cane is tied horizontally on bamboo stake tied on Erythrina plants along the rows. Instead of bamboo stakes, trellis wire of Single stake system GI can also be used. This system is suitable for varieties which The spacing recommended bear at shorter cane like Bhokri and not to be adopted for this system for varieties that bear in longer canes. is 2.4 M x 2.4M. It is a common system in Western India.
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Bower / Arbour / Pandal / Pergola system

Most commonly adopted system in Tamil Nadu. It gives high yield in vigorous varieties like Anab-e-shahi. The vines are planted at wider spacing of 3.6M x 4.5M or 4.5M x 5.4M. The main stem or trunk is allowed to grow from the rooted cutting. The vines are trained single stemmed up to a height of 2 to 2.5 m and then laterals are spread over a criss cross network of wires supported by strong concrete, stone or wooden poles. Pinching of growing point when the vine reaches height of pandal induces production of side shoots.

Two vigorous shoots in opposite direction are maintained initially as primary arms and three laterals spaced at 60 cm are developed on both sides as secondary arms on each primary shoot, thus there will be 12 secondary arms on each vine.
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Teritiaries will be allowed at 8-10 numbers per secondary arm, which after maturity constitute the fruiting canes. Bower system is suitable for almost all varieties especially for vigorous ones like Anab-e-Shahi and Bhokri. This is widely adopted in tropics throughout world to exploit the full productive potential of vines, which show apical dominance under tropics. Though initial cost for establishing the pandal is higher, yields from vines on this system are also higher mainly due to large fruiting area provided. It is possible to develop as many as 10 shoots/ m2 by subdividing the apices growing in horizontal plain.
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Advantages of pandal system

A tropical climate and mild winter as prevailing in Tamil Nadu encourages luxuriant growth, consequently

facilitates the harvest of successive crops at an interval of 5 months. The crops get enough sunshine uniformly development. for their proper

Plant protection measures are more

effective in this system.

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PRUNING
Pruning is the most important operation to encourage fruiting
simultaneously maintaining the vigour of vine. The yield of grapes is dependent to a larger extent on the method of pruning. Different varieties require different systems of pruning depending up to their vigour and bearing habit. Grape vine is a past season bearer. The flower buds are differentiated in the previous season itself in a cane. The lateral mixed buds which have differentiated into flower bud will be released as a shoot (current season growth) possessing leaves and inflorescence. This shoot is going to mature and become cane for the next
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season.

After building the canopy spread on the supporting system by proper trainng, the vines should be pruned once or twice in a year depending upon the climatic conditions in a locality. In the mild tropical region, vines are pruned twice and the crop is harvested twice. In varieties like Gulabi and Bangalore Blue which are fairly resistant to rain damage and in which cloudy weather and rains do not impair bud differentiation, pruning is done at one time of the year. As a result, five crops are harvested every two years. The growers adopt a pruning level of 4-5 bud level for pruning of all the matured canes which results in more exploitation of reserved food material leading to loss of vigour, quality and early setting of senility in the vines. In Pacha Dhiraksha, pruning shoots to 4 or 5 buds for summer crop and 3 or 4 buds for monsoon crop is recommended.
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Season of pruning

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Season of pruning and buds to be retained on canes are important factors to be considered. Growth behavior of grape vine differs in tropical and temperate conditions. In tropical conditions grape exhibits strong apical dominance and

sprouting of a fewer buds, necessitating retention of as much as 10

times more number of canes on a vine after pruning to get optimum yield.

Best season for pruning vines is towards end of winter when they are
dormant. In North India pruning is generally completed by mid-January. Grape culture in Southwest India has some special features. Vines exhibit continuous growth without entering into dormancy due to mild winters.
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Pruning is possible two times a year under such conditions. In Tamil Nadu, pruning in December-January gives yield in April-May, called as summer crop and pruning in May-June results harvesting in August-September, called as monsoon crop. In certain pockets, pruning is adjusted in such a way to harvest crops during every five months. In Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, pruning is done during summer (March-April) to induce vegetative growth, generally called as 'back pruning' or 'growth pruning', followed by pruning for fruiting during September-October.

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To determine number of buds to be retained while pruning, one should

be aware of bearing habit of varieties grown. In some varieties, basal buds of cane are fruitful whereas in a few others, middle or even apical buds are fruitful. Based on their fruiting habits, number of buds to be retained varies while pruning. Number of buds to be retained for different varieties is as follows: Bangalore Blue, Bhokri - 3-4 buds. Gulabi - 10-12 buds. Thompson Seedless - 10-14 buds. Beauty Seedless, Perlette, Cardinal - 4-5 buds. Anab-e-Shahi - 4-8 buds. Muscat, Pachadraksha - 5-6 buds.Pusa Seedless - 9-12 buds .
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