How to Remove Leaves from Grape Vines

Removing leaves from your grape vines aids in better fruit.

Removing the leaves from mature grape vines, also known as leaf pulling, helps lead to higher quality fruit production. With leaf pulling, sunlight and airflow improves around the plant, making your grape vines less susceptible to harmful fungal diseases. Removing some of the leaves also helps the vines dry off faster, making the plants less prone to bunch-rot infection. Spray penetration also improves with leaf pulling. Leaf pulling starts right after your vines finish flowering and the fruit has set.

Things You'll Need

• Pruning scissors

Instructions

1. Look for the small sets of leaves found at the base of each plant. Wait until after your vines stop flowering and you can see tiny fruits before preparing to pull leaves.

2. Pull or use your pruning scissors to remove from one to three sets of the base leaves on the shade side of the grape vines. Avoid pulling any leaves from the sun side of the vines to keep the sun from burning the fruit. If your vines grow in a north-south row, pull leaves from the east side. If you grow grapes in an east-west row, pull the leaves from the north side. The base leaves do not help the plant produce enough energy or aid in grape development, so their removal helps the other leaves get and produce more energy.

3. Look for leaves touching the tiny grape clusters, and remove those leaves, too. Removing the leaves helps the sunlight expose the fruit, resulting in better color for red wine grapes. Sunlight penetration also helps lower potassium and pH in the juice the grapes will provide when ripe.

4. Make a second pass later in the season before veraison starts to remove any old or yellow leaves and to allow the sun to reach the fruit. Veraison occurs when the grapes start to get soft and begin changing color from green to red or yellow.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep leaf pulling to a minimum during the first few years of growth to encourage a strong root system to grow.

• While leaf pulling, look for lateral shoots growing in the fruiting zone. You can remove these lateral shoots to help aid in the production of the fruit.

• Avoid leaf pulling after veraison starts so that your fruit does not get sunburnt.

• Keep an eye out for birds that find the leaf pulling helps them more easily spot and eat your exposed, ripening fruit.

References

• Ohio State University: Midwest Grape Production Guide
• Kens Wine Guide: Definition: Veraison

Resources

• Grape Growing Guide: Pruning Grape Vines