Plant a Grapevine!

Planting Grape Vines – Watch the Video

People have been growing grapes for thousands of years and like any plant that’s been in domestication for a long time there are lots and lots of grape varieties.  Some have seeds, others are seedless; some are green, blue, black, yellow, or red.  Some are best for eating, others for making juice, wine, or raisins.  You can even blanch the leaves and stuff them to make dolmades.  So think carefully about what you want to do with your grapes before you choose your plant.

Next, consider where you’re going to plant your grapes.  Grapes need a strong support structure like an arbor, a strong fence, or a pergola.  Lightweight support like a trellis is not recommended.  Grape vines are heavy especially when covered with ripe fruit.  And if you’re planting your grapevine in a high traffic area consider the color of the grape.  A green grape will leave a lighter color stain on concrete than purple or red grapes.  Grapes require full sun at least 7 to 8 hours every day.  They do best in well draining soil.  If your soil type is heavy clay, be careful not to over water.  You can also plant a grapevine in a really big pot filled with good, well draining potting mix.

To plant, dig a hole just a little deeper and a bit wider than the root ball.  Add a couple of hand fulls of worm castings mixed with a balanced organic fertilizer.  A balanced fertilizer is one where the three numbers on the label are the same — nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.  Water the vine well when you plant — and then mulch.  Keep the mulch away from the plant stem to avoid rotting the stem or encouraging insects from chewing on the plant.  Over the next two years continue to water deeply to keep the soil damp, but not wet.  After year two, deep water just in the summer every couple of weeks depending upon how hot your garden gets.

Fertilizer isn’t really necessary.  Avoid applying too much nitrogen which will produce beautiful lush leaves but not much fruit.

As soon as you plant, start training the grapevine onto it’s support.  Grapevines can grow up to 200′ a year so an adequate support system is a must.

Grape fruits — they’re called berries — appear in the spring and ripen through the summer.  Harvest is at the end of the summer when the weather is warmest and the grapes are sweetest.  Bees, birds, possums, and other critters all love grapes.  Some people net their vines to protect them.

Pruning is critical.  This is done in the fall once the leaves have dropped.  Find the main vines.  On these main vines cut back all the branches, called canes, leaving the first two nodes — they look like joints — on each branch closest to the main vine.   In the spring, these nodes will send out new shoots that will make next year’s grapes.

It can take two to three years before a grapevine is mature enough to really produce.  After that, it can keep producing for 25 to 30 years.  And when the end product is as delicious as a sweet, juicy grape…it’s worth the wait.