Growing Grapes Naturally

thursday i collected some willow branches and got them into a bucket of water
friday a friend helped to take lots of cuttings
today,(its monday) i dug up the two grapevines
they have all been watered with the willow water
thanks for the tips
i think it went alright
each vine had at least one nice clump of smaller roots which pulled out nicely
lots of main roots were severed but there is much less to sustain up top now
here is the vine before:



after taking cuttings

potted up

willow watered

Gotta love the pink color on the new growth on table grapes each year!

Samantha Hall wrote:This thread is really long so I hope I haven't overlooked an answer to this already.
I have a lot of grapes every year. When I planted them I didn't know what I was doing. Anyway, they are a bit small and taste, only okay. We eat some fresh but there's a limit due to their taste. We're not interested in making wine with them and when we made jelly, it seemed to take too much sugar for the jelly to be tasty. So my question is.....does anyone have any additional ideas, recipes or any other ways we can preserve or use our grapes?

I haven't read all the posts either, but it might be helpful if you trim off clusters. Not all of course, but I mean if they are so small it could be a nutrient thing. So fewer clusters should theoretically give bigger clusters when they are ready.

M. Phelps wrote:i have two established grape vines i need to dig up if i want to keep them
i plant to dig them up in the spring before they start to leaf out
hopefully they make it

one way to propagate is to pile some dirt mid way on one of the vines and once it roots sever it from the main plant
disclaimer: i have always failed at this

We've been cleaning up the grapes here (that are pulling the fence down...) And we find the stray vine that is growing. I'm not sure you've failed though, just didn't give it long enough. Mine take months to come back to life!

The first one I tried almost 2 years ago, I thought died. Since the growth it had died.....I left the pot there and it'd get some water splashed on it being where it was. It pulled a Lazarus. I sold it for 10 bucks later, underpriced I'm sure

I've got 3 poking up now of the 5 I had started last year. Not that we need more grapes, but I'm hoping the farmers market will be a good avenue for them. Locals here are really after anything that will survive here. The neglect these have had should be survivors for anyone else!

I'm so excited that this year we have our first baby grapes on our vine planted 3 years ago. 10 years ago we lived in the southeast US and we planted three types of muscadines and then the first spring they got baby grapes, we moved to the west coast and didn't get to ever harvest any. (I heard that in subsequent years they produced so many grapes that the purple living there were bringing grocery bags full to work because there were more than they could eat.)

So this first crop it's doubly exciting as it will be our first ever grapes and we've been trying four 10 years! I hope I haven't jinxed myself by getting too excited since it's only May and we have all the way until September or maybe October before harvesting. Eek! So many things could go wrong in the meantime!

Congratulations on the potential upcoming harvest Jenny, yes it seems like once the grapes start producing, they really pump out the harvest!

Hope you get a good harvest later this year!

Anyone have any experience with this gall on their grapes? Just moved here this year, some vines are super thick, so i dont want to lose them if possible. Thought i was going to get a ton of grapes but instead ive got galls.

I had a little bit last year that looked a little different, I think it was on the main vine section of my grapes

It went away and haven't seen it at all this year, hopefully it'll just go away on its own for you too!

Baby grapes!

I really like how the grape leaves look after a rain

Do you have any problems with black rot?

I get some, mostly on the grape varieties that have a tighter cluster, but it's not bad, just a grape here and there, and they can easily be picked off. The grapes with more open clusters seem to not get it nearly as much and some of them not at all.

I want to start breeding grapes soon, and think that the open clusters are really nice looking and also beneficial for disease and pest resistance here, and I will probably select for more open clusters as a result.

I only have one grape vine in my garden, and I just re-discovered it climbing a tree after I thought it had died from typhoon damage a couple years ago. I trained it up my car shade this year and it produced a lot of grapes but I seem to be losing about 10-20% to black rot. I was surprised because that must mean the fungus is already present...

So you just pick em off, huh... I'll try that.

following up with my earlier post.. it was a success!

my first successful rooting of a grape vine cutting

thank you Steve Thorn!

We have had grapes for 26 years.  They get very little care, and really get watered. They still produce, but not nearly as much as they use to. Probably lack of care more than age.  They grow up our almond tree.  It looks cool, but the grapes are so high only the birds can reach them.
Two years ago I got two grapes at the end of the season very cheap. I planted them by my garden fence and they didn't grow at all.  I did some research and discovered grapes don't like to be heavily mulched. I removed the mulch, and they grew a little.  One didn't make it, but the other grew well and produced a good amount of grapes.  This year I redid my garden, and moved the fence. I left the post, and put a insulated wire from the post to the fence.  This didn't cause any harm, and we got lots of wonderful sweet grapes.  They are red flame. I don't water them, but I think they get water when I water the veggies.  I love munching on grapes when in my garden.  My kids were eating them before they turned purple because they were so sweet, even before they were totally ripe. I love the way they look on the cattle panel trellis too.

As a grape grower, you might be able to appreciate the new grape arbor at Wheaton Labs.  Check it out!



Watch the video: https://youtu.be/OBoaYFSSeAg?si=dU5GzR8O0bExDCKW