OLD, unpruned grapevines always become a tangled mess and are a common sight in many backyards.

Too often they are ignored because they tend to remain fruitless or carry only a few bunches of inferior grapes.

Even the most straggly, neglected and nonproductive grapevines can be pruned to force them into carrying great bunches of grapes.

It’s a job best carried out in late autumn and early winter before sap begins to rise and pruning cuts bleed.

The aim is to get rid of huge amounts of useless, congested canes, most of which grew during summer.

For most backyard growers, there is a simple method which, with occasional summer trimming, ensures reasonable yields of well-filled bunches of either dessert or wine grapes.

Start by cutting all long, straggly canes back hard, almost to the point of origin.

Leave short rods — each containing about three buds — sticking out from the main dark branches. This can involve plenty of snipping.

Some old dark branches may be several metres long. Don’t hesitate to cut out all the oldest and retain just two of the healthiest and youngest.

Pull them down so they are stretched horizontally along wires or supporting frames. By the time you have finished, less than a quarter of the original plant will remain and vines can appear totally bare and devastated.

If pruned rods are close together and too numerous, quality and bunch size will suffer. If necessary, thin them so each main branch or arm has well-spaced rods to grow on.

Most grapevines are not grafted, so they produce lots of sucker-like growth from the base and the first half metre of main stems. Cut them off flush without leaving stubs.

Long-neglected grapevines often have thick old branches hugging the ground, sometimes extending for metres. They, too, can be cut off flush and all straggly debris dragged clear.

This leaves the bases of main stems or trunks completely bare. The top part of vines — usually just a couple of long branches — are tied down horizontally or draped over pergolas.

The well-spaced rods sticking out are where the next bunches of grapes start to form.

Later, during early summer the first flower-heads will appear and, to ensure good-sized bunches, these, too, will need to be thinned.

Afterwards, rake up all debris and either burn it or cut it up and throw out with the rubbish.

Finally, spray pruned vines with safe fungicides such as Bordeaux or Burgundy mixtures or copper sulfate. Spray again at the end of August and finally as buds begin to swell prior to unfurling in spring.

In cold districts with a short growing season, popular dessert grapes need to be grown in unheated greenhouses, although a few cultivars bear well outdoors. Grapevines grown for wine are hardier and develop extraordinary flavours where summer and autumn temperatures rarely rise above 25C. These bunches do not need the same drastic thinning as dessert grapes.

Wine grapes thrive in districts where the berries ripen slowly over long, dry summers, well into autumn. In our Tasmanian garden, pinot noir carries great numbers of tight bunches of small, intensely flavoured grapes as late as May.

As a non-drinker, I must confess to eating these bunches like apples and the incredibly sweet, aromatic taste makes my head spin with ecstasy.

Grape cuttings taken now or early winter soon form roots. If you have a favourite variety, cut healthy young canes into 25cm lengths, each containing three buds.

They strike so easily that bundles of 20 can be loosely tied together and shoved into the soil so only the top bud of each cutting is sticking out.

By mid-spring you’ll have lots of well-rooted cuttings which may be lifted, disentangled in the cool of the day and planted out.

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