pruning grapevines

My wife has been growing a grapevine (from a cutting) in our conservatory for 2 years and is unsure how to prune it.

I downloaded some info from an american university website which I think was aimed more at commercial vineyards!?!

Where,how and when is best to prune??

 

Its too late to prune now but you can pinch out certain shoots of the new growth, never cut into brown wood unless the plant is dormant ie. mid winter.
You need to grow it on for a couple of years before you can expect any fruit to speak of.
There are a few tried and trusted methods of growing grapes, but the one I used is a single stem or rod with the grapes growing on the side shoots. Every year the side shoot is pruned back to a new bud in winter, when the bud sprouts in spring it forms a couple or more leaves and then a bunch of flowers, sometimes two.
However at the moment you need to grow on that main stem, or two if you like. But the main pruning must be done in winter and I dont know what you have at the moment.
pete

 

Cheers Pete

Wev'e had no flowers to date but as your say it takes a couple of years and we have repotted it a water it once a week.

Do we need to spray the leaves to stop them drying out as this seems happen often? or should it have some shading in the conservatory as it is south facing and gets a lot of sunlight and heat

 

Ah, i'm sorry I missed the fact that you are growing it in a pot :rolleyes:
Do you know the variety? It could possibly be better outside for most of the summer and winter, and only brought inside in early spring to get it going early.
If its kept inside it could well burn without shading and keeping up with the watering could be a problem. Feeding also will be needed.
Probably more of a bush form of growth will be needed, instead of the one I described earlier, but the principals are the same, it flowers on the current seasons growth.
You will need a pretty large pot eventually.
pete.

 

Pot size seems adequate at the momement (13x13x13 inches).
Don't know what the variety is - will try and discover.
Looking into some blinds for the conservatory so that the vine and humans don't wilt without shade!
Is there any preferred feed for vines or will general liquid fertilizer do?

 

Well to be honest, I've not grown them seriously in pots, only as an experiment with spare cuttings. They are greedy plants I find, also mine are outside most of the year.
As far as I am conserned there are far too many specialist feeds around, (speaking personally) and a tomato liquid feed from July onwards I think is OK. But probably a specialist grower would tell you different.

 

Tomato liquid feed sounds fine to me!
Ta!!