What does it take to grow excellent quality grapes (wine or table grapes) in your backyard?  Having excellent quality grapes don’t just fall from the sky; there are a few key things you as a new or seasoned home grape grower must always keep in mind and one of the most important is having proper planting material.

I know this is problem for many grape growers.  In some countries, getting your hands on good planting material, is very hard and sometimes impossible.  Being able to grow buy grapes from a nursery makes it much easier, but you still need to ensure that the planting material you are about to buy is of good quality.

First of all; get the name of the variety you are buying because this will most of the time determine how you will prune and manipulate your.  Choosing the right variety for your climate is very important.

Now, what to look for when buying grafted cuttings:

1.      Make sure the graft union has healed properly and that there are no openings between the rootstock and the carrier.

2.      Make sure the union is strong by slightly bending the grafted vine – don’t over bend it, it will break. If the union didn’t attach well, it will brake easily.

3.      The rootstock must have well developed, strong roots, with no signs of defects.

4.      Take a look at the bark of vine, it should be undamaged with a dark brown color – not black as this can be an indication of some fungus spores (from the previous year)

5.      The canes of your vine should have grown at least 8 inches the previous year and preferable there should be more than on cane.

6.      No visible roots should come from the graft union – if there are roots, remember to remove them before planting, otherwise your vine loose its resistance to diseases inside your soil.

 

 

When buying grape vines in a planting bag:

1.      Because you cannot see the root development of the cuttings inside the bag, you must ensure that the canes that developed the previous year well developed.

2.      Never take the cuttings from soil in the planting bag; keep the root-ball intact and do not remove any soil around the roots of the cutting.

3.      Make sure make a large enough planting hole to accommodate the entire root-ball.

When buying two year or older grape vines:

1.      All of the above is just as important for buying older grape vines.

2.      Prune back the vine to ensure proper root development.  The roots will most probably go into a state of shock, just after planting the new vine and will not take up any water or minerals for a week or two.  Therefore, the lost of moisture through leaves and shoots should be minimized.

When taking cuttings from another vine:

First, during the winter (just before spring), when it is time for pruning the vine, cut eight to ten shoots of the previous years’ growth from the vine. If possible, take cuttings after there has been enough cold weather to kill any diseases there might have been and to give the canes time to ripen (mature).

The best cuttings are from the base of the cane, near the older stem. Each cutting should have 6 to 8 buds and should be approximately 12 to 16 inches long (figure A), with several nodes (places where buds are located). Avoid cuttings where the wood is soft and spongy and has large piths. Do not use too thick or too thing cuttings; I would say not thinner than a normal pen and not thicker than say one and a half times the diameter of a pen. 

REMEMBER the vine knows the top from the bottom, so make a square cut at the top, about an inch above the bud and a skew or slanted cut at the bottom, right beneath the bud, so you know which way is up.

No matter what type of propagation material you will use, just make sure, it is virus and fungus free planting material and that the roots and canes are in good health.

Starting a grape vine with proper planting material is the key to having a great looking young vine that will reach the trellis wires in no time.  There is no use in preparing your soil the right way, constructing a canopy support or trellis, laying out irrigation system, if you don’t have good quality cuttings.

Get all the info you need to grow your grape vines like a seasoned pro by joining the Complete Grape Growing System Membership Site.  For only $47.95, you get free instant access to all the information PLUS 2 videos to show you how to prune a spur and how to cane prune your grape vine.

Can you believe that 2008 is almost something of the past?  With Christmas just around the corner, I want to take this opportunity to wish every reader of my blog and every member of My Grape Vine, a festive holiday season and a prosperous 2009.

Thanks for being part of My Grape Vine and for help building one of the best Grape Growing Communities on the entire Internet.  Without you guys reading my newsletters and blog posts, there is no use in writing here is there?

I really hope that each and every one of your dreams may come true in 2009 (and that you will grow the best looking grape vines there is )

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

I often receive questions about growing seedless grapes.  With this article, I will try to clear up some of the mysteries of growing seedless grapes.

Where do seedless grapes come from?

No one really knows for sure where seedless grapes first came from, or when it was first grown, but it is believed to be from a mutation that happened several thousands of years ago, in what is known today as Afghanistan.  The grape vine that mutated, produced grapes without any seeds.

Now the question is, how did they reproduce this grape vine?  The most obvious answer would be that cuttings or shoots from this grape vine, where planted in several different locations in this area.  These new grape vines also produced seedless grapes and from there the whole seedless grape industry has its origin.

How to grow seedless grapes?

The only way you can grow seedless grapes is if you can get some buds, canes or cuttings from another grower or nursery, who has seedless grapes.  Because seedless grapes have no seeds, they cannot be reproduced with seeds (obvious, isn’t it? J).

The variety, Thompson Seedless or better known as Sultana or Green Sultana, has been around for years and is probably the most well known variety in the world.  The problem with most seedless grapes, like Thompson Seedless, is that they naturally produce very small berries.

The export market or fresh fruit market the past few years, became such a competitive environment, that growers needed to up their game in producing better looking, sweeter grapes with larger berries.

Allot of research, and off course money, was spend on finding ways to grow better quality grapes without loosing the natural characteristics and taste of the grapes.  Cultivation practices, the introduction of natural growing hormones like Gibberellic Acid  (GIB) and CPPU and reducing crop load to optimize berry size, all contributed to producing the best quality Thompson Seedless and many other seedless varieties, that has ever introduced to the market.

For any grape grower or grape lover to “really” understand and know what effort and how much money goes into producing seedless grapes, with a berry size of +- 21mm or 13/16 inches, isn’t that easy.  Growing seedless grapes of this quality takes time, allot of risk and some really good viticultural knowledge.

 

These are Thompson Seedless grapes on my farm

 

 

How seedless are seedless grapes?

In the early years, and even with some varieties today, it was found that many of the so called seedless varieties, actually have vestigial seed traces.  Normally these seeds have a soft seed coat and most of the times you wouldn’t even notice it, while eating the berries – this will differ from variety to variety.

Can I grow seedless grapes?

In the past, most of the seedless varieties wasn’t cold hardy enough to withstand harsh winters conditions, but with excellent breeding programs and allot of scientific experimentation, new seedless varieties where specially bred for these condition.  Varieties like Canadice, Einset Seedless, Reliance, and Vanessa are just some of these varieties.

As far as viticultural practises, most small vineyard owners and new grape growers find it very hard to produce really good quality seedless grapes.  This off course will change as you learn more about growing grapes and how your grape vines adapt in your climate.

While learning to grow top quality seedless grapes, you could make mistakes that will cost you your crop.  As said earlier; it takes time, it pose some risk and takes knowledge, believe me.

Let me give you an example.  We use GA (Gibberellic Acid remember?) to help on the natural thinning out of Thompson Seedless on my farm.  The rule of thumb where we live, is to spray 3 thinning out sprays of a 10, 10, and a 20 ppm (particles per million) GIB.  This year however, the weather was so bad (the fluid remember?), during flowering that we knew for certain that the Thompson Seedless will abort much harder.  I changed the recipe to 10, 20, 10 ppm and had great results.  This off course comes with years of experience and some good faith!

With extremely dry and hot conditions during flowering, the grape vine tends to abort berries much quicker.  You therefore kneed to know how your grape vine would react to certain weather conditions.

Growing seedless grapes can be a rewarding experience, as this is the most sought-after grapes in the world, but it’s not the easiest grapes to grow.

Good luck and if you haven’t tried growing seedless grapes, you will never know if you will succeed, would you?

Take care

Danie

 

Get all the info you need to grow your grape vines like a seasoned pro by joining the Complete Grape Growing System Membership Site.  For only $49.95, you get free instant access to all the information PLUS 2 videos to show you how to prune a spur and how to cane prune your grape vine.

Please note, that the Complete Grape Growing System is an online product that you need to download to your PC.  There is no physical product that will be posted to you.  The great thing is you get instant access, no matter where you live or what time it is;  even if it is 2am in the morning!

Before you read any further, I want you to understand that this blog post is a guideline only.  What I will do, is to recommend what you should do with post harvest irrigation, and since the messo and macro climate of each region differs, you must adapt what you learn here, to suit your own needs.

I will start by saying that many grape growers stop watering their grape vines, once the crop was harvested – BIG MISTAKE!.  Ask yourself this question; “Why would you stop watering your grape vine?”  Because there are no fruit on the vine anymore?  Is it only the fruit that use water?  Certainly not …

If you think back at how you watered the grape vines in spring, with the fist signs of bud break, you probably started watering the grapes because you know the vine will start to use some water.  Back then, there were no visible grapes on the vine, and the roots of the grape vine just came out of dormancy.

Without digging too deep into the subject, it’s just logical that you will that your grape vines will become more stressed and the need for water will increase as the average temperatures rise, the shoots from the vines grow longer and the canopy area increase in size.  The increased temperature and canopy size will result in higher transpiration figures and the vines itself will use more water as the grapes start to develop and gain in size.

Now, after you have removed the grapes, the vines will have much less stress and at the same time the need for water will slowly decrease.  The important thing to remember is that the grape vine don’t stop using water after you harvested the crop – it only needs less water. 

As fall approach, the days will be getting shorter and the average temperature will start to drop.  The grape vine will get ready for winter and starts going dormant, but still the vine is active! 

The key thing to remember here is; that the longer you can keep the green leaves on the vine, the longer carbohydrates will be assimilated.  And for this to take place, the grape vine needs a source of energy – water.  The longer the assimilation of carbohydrates take place, the better the shoots of the grape vine will ripen, making the grape vines more cold hardy.  I’ve heard of people in cold climates who strip the leaves from the vines to prepare it for winter – this is NOT recommended.  In fact, your grape vines will be less cold hardy if you do so. 

This however is not true in tropical climates.  Remember, that in the tropics, the daily average temperature will not drop low enough for the vines to go dormant and it is a well known practice that in these climates, grape growers remove the leaves from the vines to “force” the grape vines to go dormant. 

To sum up what I’ve just said, have a look at the following graph.  This shows a pattern or curve of when the grape vine needs most of it’s water.

This shows a drastic increase in the water usage and a decrease once the grape crop has been picked. 

Don’t stop watering the grape vine after harvesting the grapes, slowly cut back the water until the vine is fully dormant (normally the end of fall).  When the vine is fully dormant, it needs very little water and 90% of the time, you don’t need to water the grape vines during dormancy - except if you have very dry winters.

I hope this article makes sence and you now understand why post harvest irrigation is VERY important.

Take care,

Danie

Get all the info you need to grow your grape vines like a seasoned pro by joining the Complete Grape Growing System Membership Site.  For only $49.95, you get free instant access to all the information PLUS 2 videos to show you how to prune a spur and how to cane prune your grape vine.

Please note, that the Complete Grape Growing System is an online product that you need to download to your PC.  There is no physical product that will be posted to you.  The great thing is you get instant access, no matter where you live or what time it is;  even if it is 2am in the morning!

Those of you who are members of the Complete Grape Growing System will know, I often speak of sunlight penetration into the grape vine.  Most new grape growers I met don’t really understand or take note of the importance of having enough sunlight inside the vine.

Now when I speak of sunlight, I don’t necessarily speak of direct sunlight but more about the UV rays of the sun, as direct sunlight can damage grapes.  Not all grape varieties are susceptible to sunburn, but there are a few varieties that really can’t take any direct sunlight, especially if you live in an area where the summer temperatures reach the high nineties (ºF) or high thirties (ºC).

To protect these grapes from sunburn, you need to have a well-planned vineyard, a well-developed canopy, a practical but effective trellis system, proper canopy management and also some knowledge of when and what grapes are most vulnerable to sunburn.

The layout of the vineyard:

Properly laying out the vineyard will ensure that during the hottest time of the day, the leaves on the canopy will protect the grapes from hanging directly in the sun.  Many factors will determine the “perfect” layout of the vineyard; things like the path of the sun in your area, the topography, slope, over shading trees, prevailing winds, altitude and even the variety.

The trellis system:

Having a trellis system that expose as many leaves possible, to direct sunlight is ideal, but at the same time, that trellis system should allow you to train the grape vine so the canopy will also protect the grapes from direct sunlight.

The canopy:

As said so many times before; managing the grape vine’s canopy is one of the most underestimated cultivation practices when you grow grapes.  You MUST do canopy management, no matter what variety you grow, if it is for wine or table grapes, or where you live.

You must know when to tie down the shoots, when to pull leaves, when to open up the canopy to allow direct sunlight to penetrate the row and how to manage a too vigorous grape vine.

Grapes are most susceptible to sunburn from pea-size to just before veraison (colouring).  During this stage you must ensure your grapes are protected.  Handling or touching the grapes of susceptible varieties during this stage should be minimized.  Naturally, the grape berries have a was layer to protect them from sunlight and diseases, but will rub off when you touch the berries, making it more susceptible to sunburn.  Please note, that is only true for really sensitive varieties, the less sensitive varieties can be handled during this time of the growing season.

Here you can see the sunburn on the grapes because of a poor canopy on this vine

Opening up the canopy for direct sunlight to penetrate the vine is well known practice throughout the world and will do wonders for the colouring and ripening of your grapes, BUT it needs to be done at exactly the right time.

When your grapes start to turn colour, the sugar content within the berries will increase and the acid levels will start to drop.  During this stage, the grapes become less susceptible to sunburn but is not sacred from sunburn, so you must still keep the grapes protected.  Opening up the canopy at this stage is done by pulling more leaves or on the gable trellis system I use on my farm, it can easily be done by removing (pruning) overlapping shoots from the top of the structure like in the picture below.  This will create a 5 to 8 inch tunnel where the sun can shine through. 

Variety:

It’s a known fact that most of the white grape varieties are more susceptible to sunburn than the black or purple varieties are.  Whether it is because you can more easily see the sunburn damage or if it is a genetic thing, doesn’t matter.  I found that white grapes that hang in direct sunlight can suffer what I call sugar stains (like in the picture below).  The fact is; if you grow a white grape variety, you need to take special notice of this article.

Right, I hope you’ve learned something from this article.

Enjoy the day and happy grape growing!

———————————————————————–

Get all the info you need to grow your grape vines like a seasoned pro by joining the Complete Grape Growing System Membership Site.  For only $49.95, you get free instant access to all the information PLUS 2 videos to show you how to prune a spur and how to cane prune your grape vine.

Please note, that the Complete Grape Growing System is an online product that you need to download to your PC.  There is no physical product that will be posted to you.  The great thing is you get instant access, no matter where you live or what time it is;  even if it is 2am in the morning!