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Contrary to popular belief, grape growing (viniculture) need not be confined to warmer countries. The Romans grew grapes in England 2000 years ago, and they can still be grown there today. As average temperatures have risen over the years, growing grapes is a much more viable proposition today.
Obtaining Your Vines
Most of the larger garden centres will be able to supply you with good, healthy grape vines. Alternatively, if you know somebody who already owns a vine, why not ask them for a cutting. Of course, using a cutting will take longer to grow a vine that produces fruit.
If you buy your plant from a garden centre, try to examine the roots before you buy it. If they are pot-bound, choose another. There should be a good, strong root system, but not winding round and round the pot.
Suitable Varieties
Most grape varieties do grow well in warmer climates, but there are a few which thrive in cooler places. These include:
- Blauer Portugieser (black)
- Müller-Thurgau (white)
- Boskoops Glory (red)
- Siegerrebe (white/gold)
Indoor (greenhouse) varieties:
- Black Hamburgh (black)
- Thompson’s Seedless (white)
Choose your Location
Grapes grow best in a sunny place. As the vine is a climber, it will need some support, so try to grow the grape against a wall or fence, on a trellis, or up the supports of a pergola. Aim for a sun-facing location.
Ground Preparation
This is probably the most important part of growing grapes, and you will need to spend some time doing this if you want to be a successful grape grower.
Dig down as far as you can to break up the soil. Mix in a lot of well-rotted manure and leaf compost. Try to avoid leaves from beech trees when you make your compost as they are quite acidic. Also ensure that your manure really is well-rotted. Fresh manure will burn the vine's roots.
The soil should drain well
Planting
Plant the vine in the worked ground so that it is just slightly deeper than when the vine was in the pot.
Firm the plant in well, and then place a thick mulch or large stones around the base. This helps to shelter the soil around the roots from direct sunlight. Before vines were cultivated by humans, they grew in forests, so their roots were kept cool naturally by the shade of the surrounding trees, so we need to try to provide similar conditions. Similarly, the mulch and stones will help to protect the roots from frost in the winter.
Prune the vine back after planting unless it has not developed any leaves yet, in which case, leave it as it is.
Training
Train the vine by tying its side-branches to the trellis or other support. Do not tie the branches too tightly - they need room to thicken over the following two years. Training the branches to grow horizontally also seems to encourage fruit to grow.
Pruning
Pruning is carried out as many as three times a year; Spring, Summer and Winter.
Spring:
In April all of the buds on the vine will open at once. Do not leave them all to develop into shoots as the plant will then grow very untidily. Remove all weak shoots, leaving the strongest shoot to develop. This shoot will produce flowers, which in turn will produce grapes.
Summer:
In summer prune your vine again. This is actually a continual tidying up process throughout the growing season. Prune the shoots back to the third or fourth leaf after the fruits and remove all suckers. While the fruits are ripening, remove any leaves that cover them to allow maximum sunlight to reach the fruit. For the best dessert grapes, thin the bunches by cutting away the small fruits in the centre of the bunch using a special pair of scissors. This allows the grapes to grow even bigger, and improves ripening
For the thickest bunches, let only one single bunch per shoot develop. Remove all others.
Winter:
Don't prune during severe frosts as it will damage the vine. New shoots develop from the buds on the leaders. These are the shoots that will develop fruits later on in the year. Cut the fruit-bearing shoots back to two to three buds from the leader. The following year a new fruit-bearing shoot will develop. Cut these back to 3-4cm (1-2 inches) from the leader, leaving two or three buds to develop.
Feeding
During the first two years, feed the vine with a liquid feed once per month during the summer. After the second year, stop using the liquid feed.
In the spring, mulch with some well-rotted manure around the base.
Pests
At the end of the year, mix 1 part Jeyes Fluid with 30 parts water and spray it on the vine, soaking all the leaves and stems. This will kill all the pests that may be over-wintering on the vine.
(for non-UK readers, Jeyes Fluid is a disinfectant used outdoors)
If you are growing your vine in a greenhouse, it might be attacked by red spider mite. These insects like hot, dry conditions, so mist the plant and try to increase the humidity in the greenhouse. Don't over-do it though - high humidity can slow the development of fruit.
Winter
The important thing about winter is to protect the roots of the vine from severe frosts. Do this by applying a thick mulch around the base, or lagging it with garden fleece. Vine bark becomes hard and knarled and it may look as if the plant is dead, but it will burst into life again in the spring.
Growing grapes requires some care and a little effort, but the payoff can be fantastic. A single vine in the author's garden has produced enough grapes to fill an 80 litre (18 gallon) container.
Not only do you get lots of delicious fruit, but the vines look good in your garden, too.
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