Growing Vines

Does anyone have experience of this? I'm interested in doing it and could do with some sage advice

Thanks very much,
Alexei

 

Conservatory, greenhouse or outside?

Vines are easy to grow and much more hardy than most folk think but even in London you will need a good summer to get fruit to ripen outside. You will also need to determine whether you want one for decoration (some suberb red leaved vines!) table grapes or whether you want to dabble with making your own wine. You also have the chioce of red, pink or white grapes to consider.

Once you decide what to grow and where you can start looking for varieties that will suit your soil although they aren't that fussy and can be grown in large containers. The old way of growing a vine was to plant the vine root outside then train it through a hole into a greenhouse or conservatory to get an extended season to ripen the fruit. There is however a lot of experimentation being done and there are commercial outdoor English vinyards.

The main thing with vines is they have a deep taproot so need depth for the root system. They also need a cool dormant period during winter and will happily take being frozen. They do need shelter during spring to prevent the flowers (insignificant) getting damaged and also good sunshine for as much of the day as possible to get the fruit to ripen - especially in the autumn. Fruiting vines also need a bit of work keeping them trained and thinned out during the growing season. Expect 3 years minimum before you get any fruit unless you buy an established vine.

Make some basic choices, source a vine to suit and go for it! Alternatively next time your on hols talk to some locals and beg a few cuttings which strike very easily. You can even grow them from pips.

 

I have a grape vine moskop glory over an arch on my enclosed balcony, I would not say i know a lot other members know more, my vine is on its second year with me, i think it is just establishing its self its gone from half way up the arch and is nearly to the top its is fast growing and even i will not know iff i will get grapes. I have mine in a large ceramic pot although i plan to get an even bigger pot for next year. good luck
from rosa

 

Time charger, try this web site, very helpfull. I purchsed 12 grapevines this year to grow on my allotment (Regent) I'm growing for wine making, as per the previous reply you will not have any usefull grapes for three years.

http://www.winegrowers.info/index.htm

Good luck
David