I find that Berryfruit are much easier to prune than grapes. For Raspberries (autumn fruiting) you simply cut the canes back hard (I prune them to about 1 metre high) once they have stopped producing fruit in autumn. Remove any dead or diseased wood. They lose all their leaves over winter and start sprouting again in spring, producing fruit on the current season's growth. Many varieties need winter chilling but there are some newer varieties that are more suited for the more subtropical … [Read more...]
Pruning Grapes
I put in a grape vine a couple of years ago but haven't got any fruit yet. I read that I wouldn't get a proper crop until the third year but I haven't seen a single fruit. Pruning is something that I still find a bit bewildering and that doesn't seem to appear in many books on growing fruit in NZ (that I've seen at least). A friend gave me a diagram of how to do pruning but the pictures look nothing like the actual plant so I'm still not sure I've got it right. It wasn't helped that last … [Read more...]