Grape vine help

[dean_wales]

Pffft. This bloomin' vine will be the death of me!

I inherited this vine when I took on a allotment a little over two years ago. It was buried beneath brambles and I only avoided strumming it to the ground that first winter by the sight of a small dried up bunch of grapes.

Last year was its first year of freedom so I let it go naturally as it had a tough time. It went bananas and threw out lots of growth and fruited OK.

It was too unwieldy so needed pruning and training in the winter. I didn't have any info to hand but the vine shape lended itself to having two lateral branches in each direction. I wired these to the fence and duly cut everything else back.

Did I do the right thing?

It seems slow coming into life this year, have I knocked it back?

What should I do in future years? Want to slowly take over the plot fence with it!

Dean.





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[dean_wales]

PS Ignore the damson tree sapling in the middle of it. Currently deciding if they can co-exist of if one needs to go!

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[pigletwillie]

Grapes will take a fair bit of hacking to be honest. There are infinite ways to train and prune. I grow mine as a main rod or leader. Laterals (side shoots) grow off this leader, and sub-laterals grow off the laterals. Bunches of grapes will form on the laterals and sub-laterals.

In winter, prune back the leader by about one-third of it’s length. Prune back the laterals to two healthy buds.

Basically my main rod is trained in along a wall for 6 metres then has been stopped. The laterals are again trained in along an overhead greek style wooden gazebo and are nearly 6 meters long themselves. off these you get fruiting sub laterals and these should be pruned two leaves after the buch of grapes. These sub laterals will go mad during summer and will probably need pruning more than once.

The shape and style of your vine is up to you, you can cordon it, have more than one leader, just keep the excess growth after the bunches pruned.

[dean_wales]

Thanks for the reply, it really helps.

So if you look at mine in photo (four horizontal 'laterals') with lots of small four inch 'sub laterals' along them... Am I doing vaguely the right thing?

Dean.



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[pigletwillie]

indeed, there are no real right ways, yours looks grand.

[dean_wales]

Thanks. I want to extend it a little further and then it's just a case of trying to get it to be productive enough to warrant its spot.

Is there anything else I should be doing to care for it? Feeding? Supporting?

Dean.

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