Q&A for How to Prune Grape Vines

You can purchase them all year, but they're more usable at a particular time of year when they're malleable. Otherwise, they can dry out and become stiff. Whenever something's in season, my experience has been they cost less. When you get them outside their season, they cost more because they're usually imported and harder to find.

That's the traditional way of training grapes, but it actually doesn't matter. You could drape one of the arms of the "Y" along a lower wire and the other arm along the top wire. By summertime the vines become a jungle, and you'll see it really doesn't matter how you train them as long as they're properly supported.

The whole point of grape pruning (at any age) is to promote penetration of air and sunlight. That means establishing one main branch along each support wire and removing any other large branches. Terminate smaller branches just above a healthy-looking bud.

Prune it in fall or winter.

Maybe you over-watered them at the wrong time. When the vines bear grapes and are at the stage when they start forming sugar, then you must be careful not to over-water them.