Grape vine over winter

[lovelygreenleaves]

I've been given a grape vine in a container - Chasselas Blanc. I'm worried about protecting it over winter as I haven't grown these before. Does anyone have any tips? I'm in the UK and I don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel yet

[Green Aura]

I know you say you're in the UK, but if you'd like to put whereabouts, roughly, in your profile we could offer more specific advice.

I lived in Greater Manchester for many years, where we grew 4 vines - 2 red, 2 white, but I can't remember the varieties - in half whisky barrels and trained up a pergola.

We did nothing in the winter to protect them, but the white vines were far less productive than the red.

If you're further south I'm sure it'll be fine - maybe cover the pot with something to keep the roots warmer.

If you're further north, you'll probably need to bring it indoors, I would have thought.

[grahamhobbs]

Grape vines are basically frost hardy, you only need to give some protection to the roots to ensure they don't get frozen in. They are only grown indoors in England because we don't get summers hot enough for the fruits of some varieties to ripen. I can tell you it can be bloody cold (-20degC) in parts of France and they do not protect their vines, except to slightly earth up around the roots.

[Silver Ether]

They are only grown indoors in England because we don't get summers hot enough for the fruits of some varieties to ripen. .

Well I don't know the name of this but it grows in Bishops Castle and I took the picture on 20 september. Nicely ripe

[Peggy Sue]

I'm avidly watching fro grape advice.... I inherited 2 voines with the allotment, small ones but they are rampent and lots of grapes (rather buried in foliage and small/overcrowded bunches)

I'm a bit of a veggie grower and can stretch to stuff like raspberries but just letting them get on with it is mayhem!

[grahamhobbs]

Vines can be pruned hard. Grapes grown for making wine are pruned hard, almost back to a foot or so from the ground, in order to limit the growth and the number of bunches produce, so that all the energy and flavour goes in to those few, perhaps 6 bunches per vine. Growing for wine, you are not worried about the size of the grapes, they all get smashed up anyway, but you do want to maximise the concentration of flavour.
For eating the size of the grape is perhaps more important, this can only be achieved by thinning out the individual bunches of grapes, with small scissors, so that there are less grapes per bunch. Obviously not something that you would want to do on loads of bunches. However if you prune the vines back hard and they produce a half-dozen bunches, then taking time to thin them out might be quite nice, so as to produce, with your 2 vines, 12 really nice bunches of good size grapes for eating.
These can be stored for a couple of months by cutting them with a length of stalk and putting that into a bottle of water.
If you produce much more than you can eat, then the grapes can be squeezed and then frozen or possibly preserved in a kilner jar. Alternatively you can, smash the grapes up a bit and leave in a tub with a cloth over the top (tightly secured - a length of string with a rubber band does the job) to keep the fruit flies out. Leave for a couple of weeks, just pushing down the grape skins, which will form a crust on the surface, a couple of times a day. Then call your mates around for a party, drain off the liquid and you will have an irresistible delicious sweet fizzy alcoholic grape juice.

[Muscroj]

I live in Sheffield & inherited 2 vines when we moved into this house in Jan 2008 I don't know the variety. One in a greenhouse the other outside. The one in the greenhouse produced wonderful grapes the first year, the out door one didn't produce a single grape. In the winter last year we moved the greenhouse, but the vine had to stay put as it's planted into the ground & I felt we'd loose too much of the rootball if I were to dig it up. This year neither produced grapes (well not passed the size of a grain of rice anyway). So my advice would be that although vines will survive the winters this far north, they won;t produce fruit reliably unless they're under cover.
As yours is in a pot rather than the ground I would perhaps protect the pot itself to stop it from becoming completely frozen so that the roots don't freeze, but the vine itself *should* be fine outside.

[Peggy Sue]

Useful info grahamhobbs. Mind I cna't see me needing to keep the bunchs for months, I scoff loads daily