Forgotten grape vine

[Pumkinpie]

I was tidying up at the allotment today when I came across a grape vine I bought last year , I put it in a sheltered spot and forgot I had it. It is in quite a small pot. You never guess what it has four bunches of ripe black grapes. I wondered what how to treat it when it has finished fruiting.
Any ideas .

[Pumkinpie]

I looked up grape vines on the RHS site , plenty of useful pruning advice and problem solved!

[emma303]

Grapes are great because they're so hardy! I have 3 growing in my back garden, and really all I ever do is ignore it and harvest the fruit. :) This year, I think said fruit becomes WINE!

[Brewtrog]

Congrats for having it fruit. All I've ever read about grapes is that you need to cut it back for the first 3 years to let it root properly, after that you can let it fruit and even then you might make better wine from the leaves.

[dave45]

I wasted a lot of time with my greenhouse vines because I didn't understand properly how they fruit. The idea is that they only fruit on last year's new growth. Once fruited you can cut that cane right back. The idea is to grow the vine to about a meter high and leave that as the "trunk" - prune any growth below that level. Then let one or two vines/leaders grow unhindered from the 1-meter node throughout the summer. After you have pruned the fruited canes you'll be left with these two... bend one (or both - left and right) of these along the wires that you'll have set up (!) at 1 meter height, and tie them in loosely - so you have a 1- or 2-sided T-shape over winter. Next summer when they grow, they will send up fruiting shoots from nearly every node (4-inches apart).. tie them in loosely to the 1.5 meter wire that you'll also have set up. Chop off everything taller than about 1.7m. Don't forget to allow two more leaders to grow from the 1-meter node for next year.

[Odsox]

I think there are more than one way to grow grapes.
Mine for instance fruit on new season shoots, although mine is in the greenhouse. I grow mine the "old fashioned" way of growing 3 rods the length of the greenhouse. Then side shoots are pruned in winter to 2 nodes and the 2 node buds then shoot in spring and produce 4 bunches of grapes.
This is mine today, although it is only 3 years old and only has one central leader at the moment, the other 2 are growing and are about half way.

Grapes.jpg (87.54 KiB) Viewed 10722 times

There are well over a hundred bunches this year, last year when it was just the vertical trunk it had about 15 bunches. They are seedless and very sweet and all those that don't get eaten fresh are going to be turned into sultanas for cake making (as were most of last year's)
No wine making here, tried that and gave up years ago.

I have also planted a black seedless grape vine in one of my tunnels, destined to produce raisins, but this is it's first year and so I must wait (im)patiently until next year. It's planted in the centre of the tunnel and I plan to grow 2 single rods either way along the west wall of the tunnel.

[Green Aura]

Blimey, Tony, first tomatoes now grapes!

We grew grapes outside in Gtr Manchester, but didn't have much success with the white ones. The black grapes were lovely - sweet and juicy - but not very big, with the biggest pips I've ever seen! They were only in a couple of years before we moved up here so I don't know how (or indeed if) they've progress but in that time the four plants (one growing up each post) managed to maybe half fill the pergola running the length of our house.

They were just planted in half barrels at each post.

The downside was chasing the squirrel that kept nicking the string we'd tied them up with - fun watching though.

[MKG]

People EAT grapes? Deary, deary me!

I see there is work to be done in the readjustment camps.

Mike

[dave45]

Impressive greenhouse AND grapes (even if your dated pic does say 2013!).
I'm growing wine with the intention of making wine btw.