Aiming at the problems of low pruning rate and large stubble area in grape stalk pruning process, a kind of single motor reciprocating grape pruning machine was designed. The machine was composed of shearing device, obstacle avoidance device and hydraulic control system. The structure and working principle of reciprocating grape pruning machine were introduced, the shearing process was analyzed through the force analysis of the causes of the stem missing shear and the Matlab software was used to analyze the causes of stubble. The cutting speed, advancing speed, tool clearance were analyzed and calculated, and the value range was determined. The cutting speed range was 1.14~2.02 m/s, the feed rate range was 0.83~1.63 m/s, and the tool clearance was 0.3~0.7 mm. The effects of various factors on the stalk shear effect were studied by orthogonal test, a multiple quadratic regression model was established with the response values of shear rate and stubble rate. The results showed that when the cutting speed was 1.66 m/s, the feed speed was 1.46 m/s and the tool clearance was 0.47 mm, the stalk shear net rate and the pruning rate were 91.71% and 3.70% of stubble area, respectively. Verification tests were carried out under this condition, and the net shear rate and pruning rate were 90.66% and 4.71% of stubble area, respectively, which were close to the predicted value, indicating that the established model was reasonable. The order of the influence of the factors on the net shear rate was: cutting speed, tool clearance, and advancing speed; the order of the factors on pruning rate was: advancing speed, cutting speed, and tool clearance. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the subsequent structural improvement and performance improvement of the reciprocating grape pruning machine.