anyone tried or is growing grapes outside

Hi i have had a black hamburg growing outside in back yard for 8 years now, its massive 3inch thick it produced fruit in year 2 or 3,i live north east yorkshire pretty cold.Darren

My winters are way colder than the UK, and we have loads of snow, and grapes do just fine. It'll take them a while to wake in the spring but they quickly make up for any lost time.  Grapes are not the prima donnas many mistake them for.

Plot 6A has a mountain of them along the path so I bought 3 last year from Wilkinson 2 x white and 1 x red one to grow up the wall I have on the edge of my plot.  One white grew about 8ft tall (comfrey fed) and the other only 2ft (not Comfrey fed) and the red - well it was green and grew 1/2" if that  I'm hoping for more growth this year and perhaps a few grapes if I'm really lucky, and yes I will be feeding them all with Comfrey

Our plot neighbour has grape plants and some years do better than others but pretty good on the whole 

still a fair amount of vineyards in kent that grow grapes outside. in fact some of the south east has apparently got similar soil as the champagne regions of france, not sure how true this is. using this theory i would say soil condition is more important than weather.

You could really do with a protected area that gets plenty of sun but I'm further north than you and have a couple of vines trained to grow around our south facing front door. I like the look of the fruit dangling down every time I go out the door and eating them is always a shame as grapes tend to be one of the last fruits to ripen and picking them indicates the end of summer.
Try to make the correct choice of grape though depending on your needs. If you look at RV Rogers site they give you all the information you will need but if you phone them they are just as happy to talk to you.

http://www.rvroger.co.uk/?linksource=frontpage

I think the best tip I had was to make sure the supporting wires are six inches away from a wall if you plan to grow them that way as the grapes have a gap to hang into away from the birds.  Then when they are fruiting keep any leaves that might shade the sun well clear of the bunches so that they ripen fully.

You might find this link useful too.

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/gardening/grape-vine-mistakes.html

well got seeditis again and got a red vine and a white vine so will see what happens .. and more parsnips and sunflowers and onions cant help myself