Growing Grapevines
A Few Tips About Growing Grapevines
Most gardeners don't consider growing grapevines on their own, though they may love grapes, and wouldn't mind harvesting a homegrown supply once a year. All too often, we think of growing grapevines as something belonging to those who have vineyards and grow their grapes primarily for wine production. From what one reads, this often seems to be a tricky process, fraught with various risks that the average gardener would just as soon not have to deal with.
The average home gardener normally would not plant enough grapevines to harvest a decent amount of grapes for wine making anyhow. Some do just that however. For most of the rest of us, growing grapevines might consist of little more than having a few plants growing up a trellis or two, eating grapes from the vine, and perhaps growing enough to make grape juice or grape jam and jelly. Two of the more popular home garden grape varieties are the Concord and the Thompson Seedless. There are other varieties that work well for the home gardener also, and if a local nursery doesn't carry them, a mail order or on line retailer probably will. All you need to know, besides a little information on the grape itself, is whether you can grow the variety successfully in your area.
Soil, Sun, And Support - The primary prerequisites for growing grapevines are decent soil, a fair amount of sunshine, and something to support the vines on. If you are successful at all, you'll probably spend a few enjoyable minutes or hours each year, trimming back an explosion of vines and foliage. At the risk of digressing, many times the pruned off and flexible vines can be woven into wreaths or other shapes. Once dry, they become very rigid and sturdy and are useful for many different decorative ideas.
If you live in a warm climate you can usually grow the sweetest grapes, but good tasting grapes can be grown in most areas of the United States and southern Canada as well. Grapes for wine are grown not only in California, but in New York, Washington State, Idaho, and many other places where winters can be extremely frigid. Garden-variety grapes do well in many places where grapes grown specifically for fine wine production will not.
Good Support System Needed - When growing grapevines one problem you may run into is that of underestimating how many grapes a mature vine can produce. A spindly trellis may not support the 20 to 25 pounds of grapes a single plant could produce, especially since many of the grapes may grow near the top where greater support is needed. Grapevines are typically placed between 5' and 8' apart. Plants can be placed on either side of a 3' wide trellis, but if the intent is to be able to walk through the trellis on occasion, constant pruning will be in order, and one doesn't want to have to prune away immature grape bundles to be able to get through the trellis.
An added benefit of growing grapevines is that the foliage can be extremely attractive during the summer months. Grapevines don't have to be placed in neat parallel rows, unless you're planning on growing a number of them. A few plants can be placed almost at random in a small garden or yard, as long as the location for each plant is sunny, and there is some structure to support the plant. Vintners use wire trellis systems between heavy posts, and there's no reason why a home gardener could not take the same approach, even if two or three posts are all that might be required.
Pruning Considerations - The key things to remember about pruning are that grapes grow on year old canes, and by removing older canes from time to time, the harvest will be more bountiful year after year, producing more and larger grapes. Pruning is most often done in late winter, or in the spring, before new growth has started and the sap starts flowing.
Growing grapevines is fun to do and not terribly difficult either, plus the fruits of your labor are tasty indeed.