Pruning—your best advice for beginners
Pruning can encourage and sustain a plant's healthy growth, and we know there are newbie gardeners out there who would love to master this skill. From timing to techniques to tools, what advice would you share with someone learning the basics?
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Other tips for herbs: prune from the top, prune close to where the leaf meets the stem, and only clip, never tear, the stem. Also, stop pruning about 8 weeks before the first frost. This gives the herb time to harden a bit before winter.
Here's an article on the subject which I found to be quite helpful: https://food52.com/blog/26386-how-to-be-neat-when-gardening ;o)
Pruning Vitis vinifera (wine grape) is going to be different than Solanum lycopersicum (tomato). Different approaches will apply not only based on species but also the objective.
Note that when one prunes a grapevine for wine grapes, the pruning choice affects *TWO* seasons of growth. There are different approaches whether or not the vine is meant to be head-trained or cordon spur-trained. For sure grape varietals destined for table grapes (like Thompson seedless) will have remarkably different decisions than young Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon vines or old-vine carignane.
And let's not forget bonsai... :o)