Table of Contents
Training young vines
When to begin
Training needs to be done for each vine after its first season of growth to create the desired shape, but sometimes this gets delayed. Then it's necessary to re-train the vine so it can grow into the traditional form.
The traditional form
A properly trained vine grows into this shape. The first pair of cordons to form are wrapped around the lowest wire of the trellis. In practice the cordon is allowed to extend for a second row trained to a trellis wire about 2 feet above.
No training
This is an poorly trained grape vine. Multiple stems have grown from the trunk of the plant, extending to the trellis wires without growing horizontally to establish the cordon with more canes. It's future would likely show poorer production and lower quality grapes.
Second try
Cordons extending directly from the trunk of the plant were trimmed off, leaving a gap of the cordon above. The vine will extend cordons that don't reach the desired height in the following season. \ \