Leaf pulling or the removal of leaves is one of the summer manipulations you simply cannot just ignore, if you are serious about growing good quality grapes.

Why leaf pulling?

Not only will leaf pulling improve the coverage and penetration of your spray applications, but it will also improve sunlight penetration and airflow into the vine, which on the other hand makes your grape vines less susceptible to diseases.  As the UV-rays and air penetrates the vines, it will create less ideal conditions for the inoculation and spread of fungal diseases.  Remember for fungus diseases to spread, a hot humid climate is needed. 

The removal of leaves will allow the vines to dry off much quicker after rain or heavy dew and thus will make the vines less susceptible to the spread of fungus diseases.

Many grape growers ask me why their vines don’t have any grapes and the first question I ask them is how they do summer manipulations.  In 90% of the cases, they don’t do leaf pulling.  I will almost go as far as to say that, leaf pulling is just as important as proper pruning techniques!  I know, this is a bold statement, but without proper sunlight penetration, the chances are good that your vines will only have shoots and leaves and no grapes!

When to do leaf pulling?

Leaf pulling is done just after flowering, when fruit set is complete so you won’t disturb the pollination process.  In the southern hemisphere, it is round about middle to end November and in the northern hemisphere in May (off course this may vary from climate to climate).

If you grow table grapes or dessert grapes, then leaf pulling will improve the overall cosmetic quality of the grapes, as it will minimize the bruising of the grape skins from leaves scratching it’s surface.  For wine and table grapes, it will improve the overall grape and wine quality, as the vines are using the nutrients available more efficiently. 

Tests done with a light sensitivity meter shows that the first layer of leaves on the grape vine canopy, get the most sunlight and will use the sunlight to produce more than 90% of the carbohydrates inside a vine.  They are the most efficient leaves on the canopy, which is obvious as it gets the most exposure. 

The second layer of leaves inside the canopy, only gets about 7 – 10 % of the sunlight and will contribute only that percentage to overall carbohydrates.  The third layer only receive about 3% of the sunlight.

How to do leaf pulling?

Now, the following is important; your grape vine needs leaves to produce carbohydrates, but on the other hand use up nutrients for normal assimilation processes.  Therefore, some leaves are using energy they produce to create more energy but some are only using energy and do not produce enough energy themselves.  These are the leaves that will make less energy available for grape development and they need to be minimized at all cost.

The leaves at the base of each shoot (leaves 1 to 3, counting from the spur or cane) are the ones that are not contributing to improve grape quality.  By only removing those leaves, you will improve the sunlight penetration into the base of the canopy and will also improve the airflow by up to 40%!  Leaves touching the structure or cordon of the vine and those touching grapes clusters needs be removed. 

Don’t forget leave pulling, I know it’s a time consuming job, but you will reap the rewards in the end. 

Take care..

Danie

P.S.  If you are serious about succeeding and wants to grow your grape vines the correct way,  then join us at The Complete Grape Growing System and get all the in-depth grape growing information that helps hundreds of others to produce great looking, productive grape vines – every year!

Click here to join our Grape Growing System for only $29

You will never again go out into your vineyard or backyard, not knowing what to do!

P.P.S. Don’t forget to watch the 3 grape vine pruning and training videos, after you have joined!

Hi grape growing friends.

This isn’t the regular grape growing blogs I usually send out, but I thought I’d share my week with you :-/

On Monday, I launched the new Complete Grape Growing System and as said in the previous blog, not without some hick-ups 🙁 , so I had to extend the promotion to give everybody a fair chance to get into the program.  I’ve since had some very possitive feedback about what the system offers and will continue to add valuable grape growing info to it in the future.  I’m glad to report that the problems, has been sorted out and things are moving allong just fine now – a perfect day, until …

it started to rain which isn’t good, because most of my grape varieties are flowering right now! 

It kept on raining like I haven’t seen in our valley for as long as I have been living here.  The whole night it went on bucketing down and continued Wednesday morning.

Our mountain stream by Wednesday morning (+- 09:00 am)

 – we never could imagine what was about to happen ..

Things started to look bad by Wednesday afternoon as the rivers started to flood the banks, but it kept on raining and raining and raining.

By Wednesday evening things started to look REALLY bad…

Thursday morning after a night of destruction here in our valley, it seemed like the weather was finally clearing up – we were mistaken…

A new flood of rain poured down in the mountains surrounding the valley, feeding the already flooded rivers even more water!  

Slowly the flooded river started carving into the river-banks feet by feet – getting dangerously close to my vineyards

By lunch we already had 215 mm (+-9 inches) of rain and finally the weather started to clear up (at last!) but not without huge losses …

Some vineyards on the river-banks were totally washed away, and others suffered trellis structure losses as the soil was so wet, the supports simply gave way.

What a week it has been? 

Luckily it is weekend and it seems like the rivers are setteling down.  Thankfully we are all still alive and well, but next week will have it’s own challenges as we will start to do damage control.

I really hope your week was better than mine, but surely we appreciate the “drier” weekend here.

I hope and pray you will have a great weekend.

Thanks for all your support

Danie

Replanting A Grape Vine – Can It Be Done Successfully?

Because so many grape growers ask me about replanting a grape vine, I though it would be a good idea to write this article as part of the “New To Growing Grapes” series of posts on my blog. 

The reason why so many new grape growers are replanting a grape vine these days are poor planning, incorrect soil preparation and choosing the incorrect site or spot to plant their grape vines in the first place.  Choosing the correct site location for your vineyard, is one of the most important choices you as a new grape grower have to make as this will be the future home for your grape vines in years to come.

Let’s get something straight; replanting a grape vine is not ideal, especially if it is older than two years.  Therefore you need to do proper planning before you establish your vineyard.

So, your grape vines were not planted in the right spot or you are moving to another house and wants to take your grape vine with you – now what?

Replanting a grape vine pose some risk!

There is no doubt about that, but it can be done if you follow the instructions I am going to give to you now.  Do not deviate from this too much as you could loose your grape vine.

The first problem with replanting a grape vine (2 years and older)

The root system and structure of the vine gets bigger each year and makes the removal of the vine much harder.  When replanting these grape vines, you will eventually damage some roots, as it is impossible to take them out of the soil intact.  Damaging the roots of the vines will result in the lost of moisture through the wounds and could result in the roots drying out too much and die.  When taking the vines out of the soil, make sure you dig up as many of the roots as possible – the more roots you can save, the more successfully you will replant your grape vines.

The second problem with replanting a grape vine

The loss of water through the leaves (evaporation).  After replanting the grape vine, the roots of the vines are in a state of shock and for a week or two will not be able to take up water from the soil.  If the climate is hot, the grape vine will loose water through the leaves which will result in too little water in the vine and the leaves will start to wither.

You therefore need to minimize the apical growth in order to ensure there is enough available water in the vine itself by reducing the number of shoots to a maximum of three.  I would recommend you prune back hard and leave only one strong cane from the base of the lowest cordon.  You can develop the new structure of the vine from there.  Rather loose one or two year’s growth and have healthy vine, than trying to retain the old structure and have a dead vine!.

The third problem with replanting a grape vine

Because you have a much bigger root system than a normal rooted cutting, you will have to make a much bigger planting hole.  Make the planting hole large enough to accommodate ALL the roots and do not prune back any roots to fit the planting hole – rather make the hole larger.

It is important that you understand, that when replanting a grape vine, these vines needs allot of water the first few weeks (as explained before).  After removing the vine from it’s old position, place the roots of the vines in a bucket of water for at least six hours, prior to planting it in the new location.  This will ensure the roots stay moist and the vine will not loose any water through the wounds on the roots.

Do not put any fertilizer in the planting hole when replanting a grape vine, it will damage the roots.

I have successfully done replanting a grape vine this way, and there should’t be any reason you cannot do it yourself, but it is always better to avoid replanting a mature vine.

I hope this gave you more insight on replanting a grape vine – remember, the key to successfully replanting a grape vine is:

• Keep as many of the roots as possible,
• Minimize apical growth for at least a month
• Make a large enough planting hole
• Keep the vine well watered.

Good luck with replanting a grape vine!

Danie

Get your copy of the Complete Grape Growing System today!

Growing grapes has never been this easy! 

In the previous post, “Layering A Grape Vine“, I showed you how to layer a grape vine.  As your grape vine starts showing signs of new growth, you need to manage these layers in order to maximize the shoot growth of the new grape vine and to develop the frame work (cordons) of the new as quickly as possible.

This is what the new layer looks like after just a few weeks.

When the new shoots start developing from the buds on the cane you layered, you should remove them as soon as possible.  This is a very simple process; just break them off by hand. 

For those of you who has the Complete Grape Growers Guide;  keep an insurance shoot and new training shoot as shown in the guide and train them up the training string as the pictures in the e-book shows you.  Once the vine reach the trellis wires, you can split it (if your training system requires it) or simply train it to the cordon wires and start developing the frame work (as shown in the guide).

You will notice that a training shoot from a layered grape vine grows much faster than from a newly planted cutting.  This is because it gets energy and nutrients from the original (old) grape vine.

I do hope this will help you manage your layered grape vine. 

Take care

Danie

P.S  For your own copy of the Complete Grape Growers Guide, you can simply click on the picture below.

Click Here To Order Your Copy For Only

You can use your PayPal account to buy the e-book!

This is an e-book that gives you instant access to all the information.  You will have to download the ebook after you make the payment, so you will NOT receive a physical book.

In the previous blog (Watering grape vines) we spoke about what instruments you can use to determine the amount of water needed by the grape vine.

As mentioned in the article, you should maintain a good balance between the amount of water and oxygen in the soil, to ensure proper root development.  In this article, I want to discuss this point in more detail.

Soil is made up of both organic and inorganic substances. 

The organic matter consists of the decomposing rests of plants and animals and with and ideal soil temperature and moisture levels, the soil is inhabited by earthworms, insects and fungi. 

These living organisms, along with other plants, feed on the organic matter in the soil, that will in the end create humus and soluble nutrients.   This biological cycle continues as long as there is moisture and oxygen present in the soil.  This decomposing matter aerates the soil by occupying the gaps between the inorganic soil particles, increasing its water holding capacity.

The inorganic particles of soil are named by the size of the particle; sandy soils have the largest particles and clay, the smallest particle.

The moisture/water in soil from irrigating your vineyard will penetrate the soil through cracks and gaps between the inorganic particles in the soil.  This process will push the air out of the soil as air and water cannot use the same space.  Plant roots need oxygen to breathe and without the presence of enough oxygen, they plant will drown.

As the organic material decomposes, it will release carbon dioxide, which replaces some of the oxygen. The water in the soil dissolves the carbon dioxide, forming a weak acid, which, by reacting with the minerals in the soil forms compounds that the plants can use as food.  Therefore, oxygen is needed in the soil!

Plants also need nitrogen, which they cannot get directly from the atmosphere.  A complex process called nitrification takes place to make nitrates available to the roots of the grape vine – this is a vital stage in the nitrogen cycle.  As you can imagine, without air in the soil, this process cannot take place.

Plants also use oxygen for the respiration processes in their cells, which are the main source of energy for the plant – their metabolism running.  Grape vines are not very well adapted to withstand too wet conditions for prolonged periods of time; so over watering your grape vine in fact halts/slow down the metabolism of the grape vine.

Remember, when you plan your vineyard, it is good practice to correct the drainage and organic content of the soil, BEFORE you plant your grape vines. 

“How much water is enough?” or “How often do I need to water my grape vine?”  is one of the most asked questions by home grape growers.  This is also one of the most difficult one’s to answer, because there are so many outside factors that will play a major role in deciding how long and how much to water your grape vines. 

Factors like your climate, soil type, soil drainage, wind speed, rainfall, topography of your vineyard, quality of the water, the irrigation system you use and even the canopy size of your vineyard will influence how much you will water your grape vine.  I’m sure you will understand, that for me to tell you exactly how often to water a grape vine, is very difficult.  I can only give you an estimates, but you need to experiment and test how much is enough.

To give you an example; during last years’ growing season, one of my friends called me to ask how much I water my Thompson Seedless grapes.  I told him the frequency and duration of my irrigation schedule, but decided to go and visit him.

When he took me to his vineyard, I immediately noticed that his soil type was totally different from mine (more sandy), his vineyard was ridged because of impenetrable sub-soil layers (ridging will cause water to evaporate more, because of the greater soil surface) and his row spacing also differed from mine.  I advised him (or should I say we came to an agreement) that he needed to water his vine more frequently but for shorter periods of time.

In the end, he nearly gave the same amount of water as I did, but his scheduling was very different from mine – by the way, he had a great crop that year.

Increasing the efficient usage of water in vineyards should be the goal of every grape grower on planet earth, as water is becoming more scares each year – global warming??  Therefore, the correct timing of irrigation and application of the correct amount of water are important to maximise crop production and irrigation efficiency.

Let’s look at what tools you can use …

Measuring available soil water in vineyards:

Class A evaporation pan:

Class A Evaporation pan, is cylindrical with a diameter of 47.5 ” (120.065 cm) and has a depth of 10 ” (25.4 cm). The pan is mounted on a level, wooden base and is often enclosed by a chain link fence to prevent animals drinking the water from the pan.

The Class A Evaporation pan measures the amount of evaporation (the process by which water is converted from its liquid form to its vapour form) that took place during a single day as the depth of water (in inches) evaporates from the pan. The measurement day begins with the pan filled to exactly two inches (5 cm) from the pan top. At the end of 24 hours, the amount of water to refill the pan to exactly two inches from its top is measured.  Off course nowadays, there are fully automatic systems available, that takes the readings, store it in a database or even send the it via cellular phone to the farmer – it even refills the pan by itself!

Anyway, the measurement you take from “reading” the amount of evaporation is then used to calculate the evapotranspiration from the soil, grape vines and cover crop.

Tensiometers or Irometers:

A tensiometer is an instrument that reads the soil water potential (the direct energy needed or availability of soil water to the plant) and consists of a porous ceramic tip (cup), connected through hard plastic tube to a vacuum gauge – they come in different lengths.   The tube is filled with distilled water and sealed at the top.

The tensiometer is placed into the soil, in the root zone of the grape vine – the porous tip, acts kind of like a root.  When the soil dries out, the pressure on the outside of the tube will decrease and an imbalance between the inside and outside of the tube will occur.  In order to equilibrate the pressure, water will move from the tube, through the porous tip into the soil.

As the water moves from the tube into the soil, it will cause a vacuum inside the tube and the vacuum gage will show a reading in bars or kilopascal.  Off course, when you water the vine again, the pressure inside the tube will be lower than on the outside and water will move through the porous tip, back into the tensiometer, lowering the reading again.

On the gage, 0 = fully saturated soils and 100 = extremely dry soil.  One big disadvantage of using a tensiometeres is they need constant servicing as air is extracted from water under tension and becomes trapped within the tube, reducing the response time progressively until the instrument fails to operate.

Diviner 2000:

The Diviner 2000 is a portable soil moisture probe, designed Sentek in Australia.  At each site, a probe tube is installed into the soil and when you want to take the readings, simply slide the probe down the tube, into the soil.  The encapsulated capacitance sensor then measures the soil water of the root zone at different depths.  The data is transmit to a handheld logger, which shows graphs of the available water in the soil.  You can also connect it to your PC and download the data.  With the software provided, it draws graphs of water usage at different levels, making irrigation scheduling much easier.

DFM Probes:

I started using these probes last year, and must say, it is AMAZING what you can do with it!  The DFM Continuous Logging Probe is a multilevel soil water content and temperature logging device.  The progressive, newly upgraded probe takes readings on 6 depths and at hour intervals and stores it locally for up to 60 days. Data can be downloaded to a mobile logger or to a central computer with the use of 1.2km long distance radio model.

In other words, you don’t have to visit the site where the probe is installed if you have a radio model!  On my farm, the sites where the probes are installed is relatively far apart, so this makes the job much easier.  You can visit their site at http://www.dfmsoftware.co.za.

Practical tips for the home grape grower:

Even with all of these instruments (and there is hundreds more on the market) to our disposal, you should always physically test your soil water level.  You can do this digging a hole 2 feet away from the vine, about 2 to 3 feet deep – this is where most of the roots of a grape vine situated.

From the bottom of the hole, take some soil in your hand and press it as hard as you can …

If you open your hand and the soil particles stick to each other like a mud-pie, and you feel your hand getting colder (transpiration of water), you know there are still free soil water available in the soil.

If the soil kind of crumbles after opening your hand, and you feel no transpiration of water, then most of the time, your soil is to dry and you need to water your grape vine.

With the help of the above instruments and physically testing the soil this way, you can easily build knowledge of how wet your soil really is when say for example a tensiometer reading is 30 cu.  I do advise you to do regular physical tests.

I hope this article will help you water your grape vine more efficiently in the future.  Remember, a too wet soil has too little oxygen needed for normal root functions – grape vines hate wet feet!

Layering a grape vine:

If you have ever tried to replace dead or weak grape vines in an established vineyard, I am sure you will agree that is a daunting task.  You normally struggle to get these new vines to the trellis wires because of competition for food and water and because of over shading from the existing vines in the vineyard.

Although it is always advisable to try and replace dead vines with new ones, there might be times when you don’t have new vines or if you failed to grow a new vine, then you can use a simple method called “layering”.

Layering a grape vine – How To:

Layering a grape vine is done in the dormant season, when you prune your grape vines.  All there is to layering a grape vine, is to make a new planting hole where you want to establish the new vine and then take a cane from the existing vine, bend it down towards the ground and loop it inside the planting hole for about one foot and then up again.   To keep the cane in place, before you fill up the planting hole, you can put a stone on the cane and then cover it with soil.

After layering a grape vine, you will soon see new shoots starting to develop from the layered cane!

Anyway, roots will develop from the buds that are buried under the soil and your new vine will get its food from the existing vine, until the roots of the new vine are strong enough to support the grape vine.

After a year or two, some growers remove the part that is coming from the existing vine, but I prefer to keep it until I am sure the new grape vine is well established and producing a crop.

The disadvantage of using layering is that your new vine will have no rootstock and could be more susceptible to soil diseases like Phylloxera and nematodes – off course it depends on how susceptible your variety is to those diseases.

Hi grape growing friends, here is a further update in the series of “New To Growing Grapes” and this time we will talk about disease control on grapes.

I am sure most of you who grow grapes, have some time or another come across some kind of disease on your grapes.  Not knowing what to look for and when to expect diseases like powdery mildew and downy mildew infections, it’s the reason why so many people fail to have any grapes on their grape vines!

Not only fungus diseases, but also bacterial diseases and insects on your grape vine, will directly influence the quantity and quality of your grapes and because not many grape growers know the symptoms of these diseases, most of the time they wait too long to take action.

The problem is; when you can clearly see the symptoms of diseases on your grape vine (on the shoots, leaves and grapes), it is often too late and 70 % of the damage was done!  Therefore, it is better practice to take precautionary measures, than to try and solve the problem when it is visible.

Grape vine canopy management to control diseases:

Controlling diseases and insects starts with a proper canopy management and grape vine manipulation in conjunction with a sound and ongoing occurring spray program.  Those of you who owns the Complete Grape Growers Guide, will recall how often I mention sunlight penetration and airflow into the grape vine and the importance of a well balanced grape vine.

Most fungal diseases need humid, hot condition and the existence of free water to spread; therefore grape vine canopy management is of the utmost importance when you grow grapes.  Proper airflow and sunlight into the vine will help to reduce the time it takes for grape vines to dry off after heavy dew or unwanted rain and therefore reducing the time the fungus has to develop.

Controlling diseases on grapes is much harder in tropical climates, because the higher humidity and rainfall in those areas, will make the inoculation and the spread of fungus diseases much quicker.  Canopy management in these areas is critical!

Another cultural practice to help control diseases of grapes, is a properly set up trellis system.  The trellis I use on my farm (the gable trellis system), allows the grape vine to spread its shoots and cover the whole canopy area, making the grape vine less compact – better airflow and sunlight penetration!  If you plan to start a vineyard, choosing the right canopy system is VERY important.

Resistance of grape varieties:

It is a known fact that some grape species and even some grape varieties are more resistant to diseases than other.  Take for example muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia), it is a native grape species found in the southeastern United States and grows wild throughout North Carolina. 

Although Muscadines are not nearly as productive and lovely to look at, as V. labrusca or V. vinifera, it can survive in areas where other grape species will never survive!  Note I use the word:  “can”.  Planting or growing muscadines will not safeguard your vines completely free from diseases, but it can help if you live in an area with high humidity and unpredicted (unwanted) rain.

Another example is Flame Seedless and Crimson Seedless – two very popular varieties throughout the world.  I grow both of these varieties my self and I can tell you from experience, that although both are red seedless, V. vinifera varieties, Flame Seedless is much more susceptible to berry rot and berry crack after rain, than Crimson Seedless is.  On the other hand, Crimson Seedless is more susceptible to powdery mildew than Flame Seedless is.

As said in an earlier blog post, you need to carefully choose the variety you will grow in your climate and/or area and I hope this article gave you some tips when you are new to growing grapes or if you are planning a new vineyard.

Remember one very important thing:  

DISEASE CONTROL STARTS WITH PROPER GRAPE VINE CANOPY MANAGEMENT!

Take care and good luck.

Danie

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will do a series of posts about questions new grape growers ask.

Today I want to discuss another question asked by so many grape growers: “Can I grow grapes from seeds?”

Because it is very hard to get hold of planting material or cuttings, in some parts of the world, grape growers are forced to try and grow grapes from seeds extracted from the grapes they buy in supermarkets or grocery stores.

Growing grapes from seeds is not the ideal way of reproducing a grape vine as the genetics of a variety is not completely carried over by the seeds – in other words, if you plant a Concord seed, and you successfully get the seed to germinate, the chances are good that the new grape vine will not have all the true Concord characteristics!

This is a very time consuming process as it can take up to three years to propagate a new grape vine from seeds.

Another big problem with growing grapes from seeds is the fact that a very low percentage of the seeds will germinate.  The grape seed is covered with a very tough seed coat that keeps the seed dormant until ideal conditions for germination.  The seeds from grapes, needs to go through a process called stratification to obtain a higher germination percentage.

Stratification of grape seeds:

The stratification or cold treatment of grape seeds is essential if you want to succeed with growing a grape vine from seeds. 

After extracting the seeds from the berries, you need to put the seeds in peat moss or damp paper towel, inside a refrigerator for at least 2 to 3 months.  The peat moss must be kept damp throughout the whole process, but not too wet (soggy).  The ideal temperature for stratification is 35 – 40 ºF (1 – 3 ºC) and should be kept at this temperature throughout the whole process.

Grape seeds can be held in stratification for a long time (even years), as the seeds will not germinate under these cold conditions.

Planting out the seeds:

After stratification, take the seeds from the refrigerator and plant them in seed pots and ensure the temperature is about 70ºF (20ºC) during daytime.  If your climate is cold, you can use heat mats to increase the minimum temperature.  Heat up the seed pots at night if your temperature is lower than 15ºC.

After a few weeks (if you are lucky), then some of the seeds will germinate.  After the seedling is about 1 – 2 inches high, it can be planted out in a bigger pot.  Make sure you keep the soil moist, but not too wet.  It is advisable to grow the seedlings in the pots for a full year, before planting them out.

If you have successfully grown grapes from seeds, let us know about how you did it by adding a comment below.

Take care

Danie

From the tons of emails I receive at www.my-grape-vine.com, there seems to be many newcomers to growing grapes each year.  Most of them struggle with more or less the same problems and ask me the same questions.  I’ve been trying to reply to most of them, but surely cannot reply to all – there is just so many hours in a single day. 

I’ve made a list of what the problem areas are, when you are new to growing grapes and will briefly discuss each of them over the next couple of weeks.  I cannot go into too much detail about each of them, that is why I wrote the Complete Grape Growers Guide off course J. but I will try to shed some light on a few problems areas. 

Okay, let’s have a look at what new grape growers find difficult…

• Pruning 

It seems like pruning grapes is still the number one headache for new grape growers.  The fact that pruning is one of the most important manipulations of growing grapes, and that so many people do not understand or know how to prune grapes, is why so many new grape growers tragically fail.  I get the feeling that people don’t realize how important pruning really is!

You must have some sort of structure or plan you follow each year.  Most new grape growers just randomly cut off canes to make grape vine smaller – big mistake!  What is very important to remember is; a grape vine reacts to the way you prune. 

In other words, if you prune for fruit, you will have fruit; but if you prune for shoots, you will have only shoots!  The “self-taught pruning methods” of new grape growers are normally “to prune for shoots” and that is in most cases why their grape vines do not produce grapes!

Developing a pruning method or structure, start the very first year of training a grape vine.  Without developing the framework of your young grape vine will make pruning much harder in years to come.

We develop what we call cordons or arms, with spurs (short bearers) situated on the arms to be the fruiting zone of our vines.  You cannot simply cut canes left and right, and expect your vine to produce grapes – it simply doesn’t work that way.  In most cases, if you get your pruning done properly, your grape vines will produce grapes.

• Training

As said earlier, the key to having a productive grape vine starts with training a grape vine from year one.  Many new grape growers just plant the grape vine and then expect it to climb to the trellis or arbour by itself.  Although sometimes this happens, it is not the ideal way to train a grape vine.

You need to make sure that you train only one training shoot the trellis or arbour – if you prefer to have two main stems one day, then train only two shoots to the trellis.  Your vines will reach the trellis or arbour in half the time – I promise.  The methods I use and explain in the Complete Grape Growers Guide, get my grape vines to the top of ANY trellis within one year.  The second year I develop the framework and then BOOM!!! Tons of grapes!  The key is – “Train your grape vine with one goal in mind – to reach the trellis wire in year one!”

• Soil pH

The third most asked question is about the pH of the soil.  Strange enough, but so it seems, new grape growers are more concerned about soil pH than about planting the correct variety and training the vines.  Don’t get me wrong, soil pH is very important, but just as important is planting a variety that suits your climate, suits your needs and suits your soil type.

To answer the pH question; grape vines can grow in a relative wide range of pH soil. The best pH for growing grapes is slightly acidulous; between 6.0 and 7.2, although you can go as low as 5,5 and as high as 7.8.   Soil with a pH outside these ranges are not suitable for growing grapes – or should be corrected first. 

Hope this gives the new grape growers some guidance to where they should focus their attention on. 

Take care,

Danie

www.my-grape-vine.com