Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Offwego on July 28, 2019, 14:21
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Having planted 3 grape vines in my poly tunnel in spring last year I was hoping for a crop this year, absolutely loads of growth but not one single bunch of grapes 🍇
Watered well and fed weekly with comfrey tea
I am to impatient , am I doing something wrong or is next year the first year I would expect any?
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This is a cut and paste from the RHS site.
Remove all flowers for the first two years after planting.
Allow three bunches of grapes on three-year-old vines and about five on a four-year-old vine – slightly more if growing well. Allow full cropping thereafter.
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Haven’t seen any flowers either🤔
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Grape vines are a bit like wisteria - left alone they make loads of leaf and forget to flower. I only have an outdoor vine and that gets mad enough. I prune fairly hard over the winter, have a tidy up in spring and another prune once the grapes have set.
It has had all that already this year and needs another tidy now. I'll reduce all the long new growths again to a couple of leaves beyond the main stem.
As I remember, it didn't do much year 1, but now it sets loads of fruit. I cut a fair bit off with all my pruning, but still get plenty. It has small pippy grapes, so good for jelly or wine only. The chickens love them as well. If you are growing under cover for an eating crop, I think you have to be even more ruthless and thin the bunches.