8 Step Grapevine Boskoop Glory Pruning Routine with Felco 2 Secateurs on a Cordon

Boskoop Glory is an outdoor black dessert and juice grape bred in the Netherlands, hardy enough to ripen unprotected against a south or west wall across most of northern Europe and the UK. On a single cordon it crops from current-season shoots that rise from permanent spurs, so its pruning belongs to a spur system rather than a Guyot replacement system. The Felco 2 has a 60mm hardened steel blade and a wire-cutting notch; the 8mm to 10mm canes removed in February fit well within that capacity. Its bypass action leaves a clean angled face and avoids the cambium crushing associated with an anvil pruner.

The framework is one vertical rod tied to a post, with three or four horizontal wires set at 40cm intervals from roughly 40cm above soil. Sap pressure decides the timing more strongly than the calendar.

Step 1: Cut in Deep Dormancy

The rule that matters most is the dormancy window. Boskoop Glory bleeds heavily from late February once root pressure rises, and a cut made when sap is moving can drip for two to three weeks. Work from December through the first half of February, with the safest spell being settled cold weather when daytime temperatures stay below 7C and no hard frost is forecast for 48 hours after pruning.

Autumn pruning straight after leaf fall creates avoidable problems. The wood is not fully lignified, and the newly cut spurs face fungal entry through a long wet winter. A January cut on dry, dormant wood, made with a sharp Felco 2, closes faster and cleaner.

Once the vine has begun to push, stop structural pruning and let it leaf out. Leave major work until the following winter. A bleeding February cut will not usually kill an established vine, although it stresses the spur and reduces the vigour of the shoots that emerge from it.

Step 2: Choose the Cane That Becomes the Spur

Run a hand along the cordon and the short stubby projections appear every 10cm to 15cm. Each one is a spur, and each spur should have produced one or two canes during the previous summer. The winter job at each point is to decide which cane stays and how short it should be cut.

Keep the lower, better-positioned cane and shorten it to two clear buds. The first basal bud often gives only a leaf shoot, so two buds provide more reliable fruiting wood. Remove the upper cane flush with the Felco 2, setting the cut on an angle so water runs off the cut face and away from live tissue.

After three or four seasons, a spur lengthens because each cut sits farther from the cordon than the last. Once that accumulated stub reaches 8cm to 10cm, cut the whole spur hard back to a single basal bud and let it rebuild. Growers often miss this renewal cut, and old cordons then finish with the crop hanging 30cm off the wire.

Step 3: Match the Spur Count to the Wall

A 1.8m cordon can carry 12 to 16 spurs without crowding. More than that creates shade within the canopy, and Boskoop Glory, which needs every warm degree it can get north of the Loire, struggles to ripen the lower bunches. Count in winter, remove the weakest spurs flush to the cordon, and aim for about one spur every 12cm with no bare or overloaded section.

Step 4: Build the Cordon Over the First Three Years

A young Boskoop Glory needs time before it can carry a straight, productive rod. Rushing the framework leaves a thin whippy stem that can snap under a fruit load.

In the first winter after planting, cut the strongest cane back to three or four buds and remove the rest. Through the first summer, tie the leading shoot vertically to the post as it extends.

Pinch back all laterals to five or six leaves during that first growing season. The aim is a strong leader with enough leaf to feed the roots and thicken the stem.

In the second winter, extend the cordon. Cut the leader back to firm, pencil-thick wood, which is typically 60cm to 90cm of new rod, and shorten the laterals chosen as first spurs to two buds each.

By the third winter the rod should have reached the top wire at 1.8m. Cut the leader off there permanently, and from that point the vine is in production. The discipline of these three building years helps decide whether the cordon stands straight for 20 years or begins to sag by year six.

Keep fruit off the young vine while the structure is being made. A single bunch in year two costs a season of root and wood development, and Boskoop Glory rewards patience with heavier crops once the framework is solid. Use soft jute or a flexible vine tie, never wire against bark, and check every tie in spring for girdling as the rod thickens.

Step 5: Pinch in Summer After the Bunch Has Set

Winter pruning sets the spur count; summer work controls the canopy and the sugar. Once each fruiting shoot has set its bunch and carries two leaves beyond it, pinch out the growing tip. That check stops the shoot pouring energy into leaf and tendril growth and redirects more of the vine’s effort into the fruit.

Sub-laterals that push from the leaf axils need pinching to one leaf as they appear, roughly every two to three weeks from June through August. The Niwaki and Okatsune shears that growers reach for in a hedge or border belong elsewhere for this job. Summer pinching is thumbnail work or a fine snip on soft green tissue, while the Felco 2 remains useful for the occasional woody summer cut where a shoot has run away.

Open the canopy around the bunches in late July so air moves through and the fruit catches direct sun. On a warm wall, this single act of leaf removal does more for ripening than any feed.

Step 6: Renew Spurs on a Three-Year Cycle

Track each spur from season to season. By its third or fourth year, the stub has walked away from the cordon and the fruiting wood sits too far from the permanent structure. Cut back to the lowest viable bud, or use a water shoot that has emerged near the cordon and discard the old spur entirely.

This rolling renewal keeps the fruiting zone tight against the wire and the canopy compact, exactly what a marginal-climate dessert grape needs.

Step 7: Sharpen and Clean the Felco 2

Grape wood carries silica, and a Felco 2 blade dulls quickly on it. A few passes with a Felco 902 carbide sharpener at the factory bevel restores the edge in under a minute. A clean cut on dormant wood seals faster than a torn one.

Wipe the blade with isopropyl alcohol between vines when dieback is suspected, because a contaminated blade can move fungal spores from a sick spur into healthy wood. The pivot bolt on the Felco 2 is adjustable. A blade with play will crush instead of slice, so snug the bolt until the blade closes with light resistance and no lateral wobble.

Step 8: Adjust Bud Count to Vigour

The two-bud spur can be adjusted based on the vine’s growth. Thick canes longer than 1.5m in the previous summer show spare vigour, and a few spurs can be left at three buds to spread the load. Thin, short canes point to overcropping or underfeeding, so each spur should stay at one or two buds while the root cause is addressed.

Bud count is the main lever for matching the crop to what the wall and the season can ripen. A generous winter cut can leave too much fruit hanging into October with poor sugar and sharp flavour. Severe pruning can send the vine into leaf growth and leave only a small crop, even though the canopy looks impressive.

Boskoop Glory on a cordon makes these mistakes easy to see because the evidence hangs at eye level on a single rod, with every spur visible. Feeding remains the awkward variable beside this reading of vigour: a high-potash summer feed may shift the bud-count decision, and a vine that looks overcropped in July raises a practical question: can the same season still be rescued, or has the answer already moved into winter pruning?