The time for the annual winter pruning of vine is about to come and it is fairly easy to control of your vine. In Denmark, we have a tradition to prune the wine just before New Year’s.

By Lars Lund  

The art of pruning vine can easily be learned. It's not that complicated. Start by cleaning your vine of old leaves.

Feel free to go through the stem and the small side branches with a toothbrush and brush off any scales or remnants of scales. You may need a magnifying glass to see them. They are brown and easily coincide with the colour of the stem.

Follow the stem from below and leave a distance of 6-7.8 inches between the smaller branches shooting from the stem. Remove what is in between. In that way you get air between each side shoot.

Now take each remaining side shoot that shoots from the stem and cut it so there are two to four buds left. This is where the fruits will come next year. If there are side shoots on the side shoots, you should cut those back to two buds. If your vine has not reached maximum length, cut 2/3 of the vine back. If it has reached its goal, simply cut off a fitting length.