2nd season grapevine advice

[SMT]

Hi all. I'm looking for some advice for my grapvines please.

I have 2 young grapevines growing in my polytunnel at home. I planted them this time last year so this will be the start of their 2nd season. Last year I trained them as a single main vine to grow from ground level upto and along the crop bars. Probably a total length of 12ft whilst nipping out side shoots. Within the last 2 weeks they have burst into action with all the side shoots. I have taken every other one off in the hope to allow air to circulate around the plant. The remaining side shoots will then be trained along wire towards the next adjacent crop bar.

The other day I noticed on the 'Lakemont' variety what looks to be 6 baby bunches of imature grapes, with each bunch growing on a seperate side shoot. I should really take a photo but my question is.....

1. Do I need to take these early bunches off to encourage energy into the leaves or am I going to be ok leaving them on?'

Also
2. How many bunches do you think I would be able to leave on the plant this year?

Many thanks for your time.

[SMT]

Here are some pics to show what I mean. I'm pretty sure they are the young bunches as of today. To leave or not to leave.... that is the question.

[GrapeGrower]

Hi SMT. I am in a similar situation, also growing grapevines in their second season - I have a thread below which might be of interest to you showing progress of my vines. In response to your questions, my thoughts are:

1. I would leave these on. These are not immature grapes as such, but young flowers which will (or should) eventually grow into a bunch of grapes. If you were to cut them all off then you would have no flowers and so no grapes! I also have a bunch of flowers showing in each of my vines growing shoots, and I will be leaving these on at the moment.

2. I was reading a book the other day that suggested in the 2nd and 3rd year you should allow no more than 3 bunches of grapes to grow per vine. I think it depends how mature your vine is - although mine are only in their second season here, I bought them pot grown rather than just cuttings, so they are fairly strong. My vines are pot grown, and on my strongest vine I plan to allow no more than 6 bunches to grow - I would suggest the less you grow in the second year the better, in order to allow the vine to focus energy on establishing itself.

Hope that's some help, maybe someone with more experience with grape growing can give you some better advice

[SMT]

Thanks for the info Grapegrower. Forgot about the flowering process, lol.

Your advice makes sense. I have well over 6 flowers forming on the vine already!

[tamsin]

I just checked ours and we have loads of those too.. maybe we'll get grapes this year