Q: When we moved into our house, the grapevine had so many good grapes we gave some to a friend. But now they are small and tart. The vine is growing very vigorously over a long arbor. What is the best way to prune it?
Sorhwa Teo,
via email
A: Your grapevine should be cut back very drastically. It will look horrible afterwards but thats how it should look after pruning.
Grapes have a huge amount of energy and, if unchecked, grow so rampantly the shade of the leaves prevents the grapes from ripening. Unpruned grape-vines also smother everything around them.
Its best to wait till late fall or early winter to do the pruning. But if some of your plants are being smothered by vine, you may want to tidy it up right nowand a minor bit of cutting is fine.
A major pruning at this time would not be good. You could get excessive bleeding (sap dripping from the cuts). Also you would be unlikely to get grapes this year anyway, because the new wood that produces them wont have time to form fruit that ripens.
Im going to assume you will be pruning your grapes this fall (2011).
This is the pruning method:
When you prune, you remove all growth except for one main trunk, four main branches with about 12 buds on each and also four very short stub branches with two buds on each. The short stub branches should be located close to the main branches.
These four 12-bud main branches will produce the side branches where the grapes will be formed during the summer of the coming year (2012).
After pruning you end up with one trunk, four 12-bud main branches and four stubsand your grapevine will look murderedbut will grow incredibly fast!
When you prune your grapes again in the fall of 2012, you should remove the four old main branches. Your four little two-bud stubs will have grown very long and you should cut them back to 12 buds to turn them into your new main branches which will give you grapes in the summer of 2013.
You should select four more stub branches and cut them back to two buds.
Everything else on the grapevine should be cut away. As before, your vine will look pathetic. But spring will bring another growth surge.
Q: What is the best time to harvest garlic for best flavour? My garlic has nice, fat buds at the moment, but Im unsure whether to pull the plants out of the ground now or wait until the flowers have died off.
Pat Turner,
Chilliwack
A: Your garlic cloves arent ready to harvest yet, Pat. But those nice fat buds might be if theyre still young. Some people pick them and slice them for stir-fries. The newly-emerged buds are crisp and succulentbut the old ones get pretty stringy. All buds are best removed so that the plants energy goes to developing the cloves.
Garlic is best-flavoured and most nutritious if you harvest when the leaves have turned yellow and are drying out. Its best to harvest while the plant is still attached to the cloves. This ensures you dont have to dig around seeking them.
Columnist Anne Marrison is happy to answer gardening questions. Send them to her via amarrison@shaw.ca
