espalier/cordon/pyramid/stamdard grape vine??

[Snadger]

I have a grape vine in a large pot outdoors! It was taken from a cutting from a neighbours plant so is only 18" tall at mo.

I would like to grow it as a stand alone 'bush' in the pot. The pot is 18" diameter and filled with a mixture of manure,garden soil and old growbag compost.

Any suggestions for how to train it? (like the idea of a pyramid shape)

[littlemark]

I think it would be very difficult to 'train' a grape vine to any of these forms. A vine is not a 'bush', and grows in a very different way to a the trees traditionally trained in these forms.

The basic 'frame of your vine is the stock, which can be anything from a few inches long to a expansive framework of woody growth of the type commonly grown over a trellis/pergola etc. Every year this permanent growth will put out a shed-load of new fruiting growth, rendering the permanent 'stock' but a small part of the vine.

At the end of each year most of this vigorous fruiting growth will be pruned back hard, and in theory you could prune back to a pyramid shape, but to imagine that this would represent the future shape of the vine during the growing season would be very misleading. A healthy vine puts on a tremendous amount of growth during the summer.

I would recommend a visit to the library for a good book on the multitude of methods for training a vine. I use the Double Guyot system, which is described quite well in 'Growing Vines To Make Wine' - Nick Poulter ISBN: 1-85486-181-6