Grapes after October pruning: the first 45 days

In the first 45 days, count sprouted shoots by day 15, thin at the 4 to 5 leaf stage, and feed nitrogen and micronutrients by stage. Cut irrigation sharply at bloom. Scout for downy mildew after every rain or heavy dew, and keep only the number of bunches your market needs.

Updated 2026-11-09

See also: Crop guides and the Immunity range.

First find your day number. Count from your pruning date. A vine pruned on 1 October is at about day 39 on 9 November. A vine pruned on 25 October is at about day 15.

The days below come from the fruit pruning calendar of ICAR-National Research Centre for Grapes, Pune, written for semi-arid conditions. NRCG says the schedule may vary with climate, soil and variety. Use the days as a guide and let the vine's stage decide.

Days after pruning	Stage	Main work
8 to 10	Sprouting starts	Start nitrogen in splits. Begin scouting for mildew.
14 to 17	Bunches appear	Remove extra shoots.
15 to 26	Early shoot growth	Zinc, boron, magnesium and iron.
17 to 25	Bunch stalk lengthens	Growth regulator sprays, only if your plan needs them.
25 to 30	Before flowering	Remove extra bunches.
36 to 50	Flowering and berry set	Cut water. Tip shoots after set. Watch bunches closely.

Day 8 to 17: check bud break and count shoots

Sprouting should begin around day 8 to 10. By about day 15, walk through the block and pick ten vines from different rows. Count the sprouted shoots on each and note which ones carry a bunch. Mark any patch where sprouting is weak, so you can check it again at thinning.

NRCG's canopy management page gives the targets for fruit pruning: 0.75 shoots per square foot for export and 1 shoot per square foot for local market. At 10 x 6 feet spacing, one vine has 60 square feet. By our arithmetic that is about 45 shoots for export and 60 for local market. Work it out again for your own spacing.

Day 14 to 20: thin shoots early

NRCG advises thinning at the 4 to 5 leaf stage, because this avoids loss of stored food. Its calendar says removing extra shoots right after the bunches appear gives air in the small canopy. That air also helps sprays reach the bunch before flowering.

Start with the second and third shoots from one bud. Then remove crowded shoots until you reach your number, and tie the rest at even distance on the wires. In one NRCG trial on Tas-A-Ganesh grapes, thinning to about 15 shoots per metre, or about 40 per vine, gave higher yield than unthinned vines. That is one variety on one rootstock, and your vineyard may differ.

Day 25 to 30: how many bunches to keep

Thin bunches before flowering. NRCG's calendar gives these targets:

Export: 1 bunch per 1.5 square feet.
Local market: 0.75 bunch per square foot.
Raisin: 1.5 to 2 bunches per square foot.
Cane under 6 mm thick: one bunch, with one supporting shoot.
Cane 8 to 10 mm thick: two bunches on a shoot, plus one supporting shoot.

Keep 10 to 12 leaves above each export bunch. NRCG's canopy page says 8 to 10 is enough for local market.

What the bunch should look like

You want a clean stalk with no brown or pink patches, and flower buds that stay on when you shake the bunch gently. A study from Pune, Nashik and Sangli vineyards, pruned in the third or fourth week of October, describes the warning signs:

Flower parts drop when the bunch is shaken slightly.
The main stalk turns brown, reddish or pinkish.
Sunken brown spots appear on berries of 5 to 11 mm.

Tag any bunch with a pink or red patch on the stalk. In that study, such bunches looked fine at first, but the part beyond the patch collapsed a few weeks later.

Downy mildew: dew counts as much as rain

NRCG scientists report that rain and heavy dew help downy mildew start, and that risk to the young bunch is very high in the first 55 to 60 days after pruning. So your whole 45 days sits inside the risk period.

That study found infection conditions under dew alone: 95 to 100% humidity at night and leaves wet for at least 4 to 12 hours. Bunches can stay wet longer than leaves because they are compact. A forecast of "no rain" does not mean a safe week.

Know the signs. TNAU describes yellowish, see-through spots on the upper leaf and white growth below. Shoots may be stunted with brown, sunken marks. In the Maharashtra study, though, bunches died with no white growth at all. Do not wait to see white powder on a bunch.

Check the bunches at dawn. If they are wet, note that night as a risk night. Read NRCG's weekly grape advisory for your district. One issue we read covered Nashik, Pune, Solapur and Sangli in Maharashtra, and Belagavi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Bidar and Bengaluru Rural in Karnataka. The bunch study was done in Maharashtra, so Karnataka growers should go by their own district forecast.

Plan protection before a wet spell, not after you see damage. For spray choice and dose, follow the current recommendation of NRCG, your state agricultural university or KVK.

Water by stage

NRCG's irrigation schedule comes from Thompson Seedless on heavy, calcareous soil with saline water (EC 1.7 to 1.8 dS/m), at 10 x 6 feet.

Stage	Days	Litres per hectare per day	About per vine, by our arithmetic
Shoot growth	1 to 40	25,200 to 33,600	14 to 19 litres
Bloom to shatter	41 to 55	5,600 to 8,400	3 to 5 litres

The big change is at bloom, when the water falls to about a quarter. NRCG says the amount can be about 20% lower where water EC is below 1.0 dS/m. Light soils and hot weather will need your own adjustment.

Feeding by stage

These figures are guidelines. NRCG says to adjust them with soil, petiole and water test reports.

Nitrogen: NRCG's fertigation schedule for Thompson Seedless lists 80 kg N per hectare over days 1 to 40. Its calendar gives 32 kg per acre, in splits from about day 9, adjusted to vine vigour.
Zinc and boron: the calendar lists a spray of zinc sulphate at 2 g per litre and boric acid at 2 g per litre, around day 15 to 26. See boron at flowering and fruit set.
Magnesium, zinc, iron and boron, day 14 to 25, in 2 to 3 splits: magnesium sulphate 15 kg per acre, zinc sulphate 20 kg per acre, ferrous sulphate 20 kg per acre and boric acid 1 to 2 kg per acre.
Phosphorus at flowering: the fertigation schedule lists 26.5 kg P2O5 per hectare for days 41 to 55. The calendar gives a higher figure, 20 kg P2O5 per acre, so let your petiole test decide.

The schedule adds no potash until day 71. But in the Maharashtra study, vines with heavy bunch death had low potassium in the leaf stalk, at 1.18 to 1.57%. Test your petiole before flowering. Read more on potash, magnesium and calcium balance.

What not to do

Do not keep every shoot because it might carry a bunch.
Do not keep the same water through bloom.
Do not tip shoots before berry set. NRCG places tipping at the two-thirds cap fall stage, after set, and wants at least 30% sunlight reaching the ground.
Do not use nitrogen-based phosphate fertiliser in vigorous vineyards, as the calendar warns.
Do not spray growth regulators without checking the water. NRCG asks for a spray pH of 5.5 to 6.0.

More crop basics are on our fruit orchards page.

Where Immunity fits

Immunity Fruit Special

Made for:

Flower and fruit drop
Small fruit
Poor colour and taste
Weak trees

The right amount and timing depend on your crop, its stage and your soil. Every pack carries the label dose.

It does not replace your mildew protection.

Made at our own plant at GIDC Shihor, Bhavnagar. We have worked with farmers since 2006.

Send us your pruning date, variety, district and spacing, with a clear photo of one bunch and the underside of one leaf, on +91 99787 91167 (call or WhatsApp). We will tell you what to check next.

Sources

By Gafar Laiya, founder of Gujarat Bio Organics, working with farmers since 2006. Results differ from farm to farm with soil, weather, crop and management. Farmer experiences on this site are their own reports, not a promise of results.

Questions farmers ask

I pruned in late September or November. Do these days still apply?

Yes, count the days from your own pruning date. But the water figures use October to November evaporation of 6 to 8 mm for shoot growth, so adjust them if your weather is hotter or cooler.

Should I irrigate after rain?

NRCG says irrigation should not be given once the soil has reached field capacity after rain. In heavy soils, no irrigation may be needed during rainy periods.

When is girdling done?

NRCG's canopy page places girdling at the 6 to 8 mm berry size. That normally comes after the first 45 days, so it is not a job for this period.

My bunches are very compact. What can I do?

TNAU, writing for Tamil Nadu, advises removing 20% of the berries at the pea stage in compact bunches. That is also after this 45-day period.

Does this calendar apply in Tamil Nadu?

Not directly. TNAU describes different seasons there: pruning in December to January for the summer crop and May to June for the monsoon crop. Use TNAU's guidance for those vineyards.

Send us your enquiry

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Grapes after October pruning: what to do in the first 45 days