Vines at Morrison's

Our Morrison's store has recently added a garden section outside. Browsing today, I see they have vine plants for £4 each - they look pretty strong healthy specimens, with 3 or 4 'stalks' or canes in each pot and around 12" tall with plenty of foliage.

The label tends to indicate they can grow in any sunny spot against a wall or pergola for support, & you can restrict them to whatever height you fancy. And they suggest you might be fortunate enough to get a bunch of grapes this year.

I've got an ideal (?) spot between the front of my greenhouse & the rear wall of the garage, which is south facing. With a 6ft fence on the west side it's extremely well sheltered but a great little sun trap. I'm guessing this is ideal but how big, realistically, should I expect to let it grow, and can I leave it in a pot or should it go in the ground? Will I need to attach a frame or something to the wall for it to grab hold of? How would I care for it in the winter?

 

Planting directly into the ground sounds a good idea to me. I think they need a fairly deep root run and are quite heavy feeders. You can train them to go where you want and keep them trimmed back to the size you want.

For a reasonable harvest I think you would need to do some pruning and thinning out so the growth / strength goes into the fruit and not all into excess vine. First you may need to concentrate upon training the vine to grow where you want it.

A friend of mine, with a beautiful old Sussex flint cottage, has one growing as a screen above her patio to shade the breakfast-room  She has a good crop of small grapes but probably does not feed enough to gain larger fruit. I am not sure how far north any particular type of grape will grow and fruit.. might be worth checking.

Fruit in the first year? I think it'd be doubtful.