Growing Grapes Naturally

Good looking vine Dan, hope you get some tasty muscadines soon.

I've put a few hundred grape seeds in a container, they came up allright, but since i've been  very busy and forget to water a few days most died. My neighbor gave me some thirty cuttings, they are also in pots but in more sheltered/monitored conditions, they are doing fine. Half show growth. The ones that i had taken cuttings from previous year and have planted all have taken and grow slowly. The one cutting that i have put in place a year earlier is now about 4 feet tall.
Going to try seeds again next year, but i won't bother potting them up, i'll grow them in a designated spot in the soil. They do fine in the soil, they pop up all over, what was i thinking putting them in a container?
Just a warning for if people think of putting seeds in pots.

I grow Concord grapes (which I love) and normally, they ripen right at the start of the school year (very end of August).

This year, it looks like we might get an early harvest (we had multiple heat waves, much earlier in the season than we'd normally expect. I've never seen a heatwave in May in zone 5b before) AND it looks like the vine is putting out new flowers (?).

Can grape really have two flowering periods in the same year? Should I prune the new flowers, to get the plant to put its effort in the existing grapes? (I doubt there's enough time to get the 2nd batch to maturity, but maybe there's interesting stuff to be done with very unripe grapes? Can I pickle that?)

Hugo Morvan wrote:I've put a few hundred grape seeds in a container, they came up allright, but since i've been  very busy and forget to water a few days most died.

I've also killed way too many plants in pots.

Going to try seeds again next year, but i won't bother potting them up, i'll grow them in a designated spot in the soil. They do fine in the soil, they pop up all over, what was i thinking putting them in a container?
Just a warning for if people think of putting seeds in pots.

I like, how you mentioned,  when planted in the soil, they can be planted and mostly forgotten to grow on their own, free to grow to their heart's content, and safe from my forgetfulness.

Kena Landry wrote:I grow Concord grapes (which I love) and normally, they ripen right at the start of the school year (very end of August).

I love Concord grapes too, such good flavor.

This year, it looks like we might get an early harvest (we had multiple heat waves, much earlier in the season than we'd normally expect. I've never seen a heatwave in May in zone 5b before) AND it looks like the vine is putting out new flowers (?).

Can grape really have two flowering periods in the same year? Should I prune the new flowers, to get the plant to put its effort in the existing grapes? (I doubt there's enough time to get the 2nd batch to maturity,

I've seen my older grape vines have a portion of the vine flower later than the rest and produce a kind of "second crop". They ripened to maturity, but we have a pretty long growing season, so that probably helped a lot.

If your vine is looking healthy and growing vigorously, I would be all for letting it try to produce a second crop!

but maybe there's interesting stuff to be done with very unripe grapes? Can I pickle that?)

I've heard of pickling unripe grapes, but never tried it myself. I'd love to hear how it turns out if you give it a try, sounds interesting!

These grapes are growing on the forest edge on a living privet bush trellis, and have had pretty much zero care since they were planted.

I love their beautiful open and long clusters!

These grape cuttings are exploding with new growth! It's hard to believe they were rootless cuttings just a few months ago!

This yellow grape produced its first few clusters this year.

This smaller red grape produced a good amount of grapes this year.

This grape turns almost black when it is fully ripe.

I probably picked most of these a little too early.

This grape cluster has almost fully ripened.

Awesome thread!  I've tried several grapes with no luck.  Fungus problems seem to blame.  My muscadine vines thrive, but only produce small fruit which is quickly cleaned up by the birds:(

Gray Henon wrote:Awesome thread!  I've tried several grapes with no luck.  Fungus problems seem to blame.

The first table grapes I planted didn't make it either. I've planted some more disease resistant ones, which seems to be the key for grapes to thrive here.

My muscadine vines thrive, but only produce small fruit which is quickly cleaned up by the birds:(

You may have already done this, but maybe a good leaf mulch might help provide some nutrients and also hold in some extra moisture during the hotter drier months to help the grapes fill out. Hope you get some tasty muscadines soon Gray!

I had my first vine set grapes this year. I even had a fine mesh 'shield' to keep the japanese beetles from devouring the leaves like they did last year. They were forming beautifully, then a raccoon tore the mesh all to bits and ate my grapes--all of them (I know it was a raccoon, because my dog chased him onto the roof one night when I was letting him out. I'm in suburbia, and this was the first I've seen of the little bandits. Has anybody had any successful ways of protecting their grapes from raccoons? Like I said, I'm in suburbia, so 'grow more' isn't an option. They're on the thin side yard between me and the neighbor's house, and really seem to do well in that spot. Lots of various other plants growing beneath/around them.
Thanks!

Ken Schmidt wrote: then a raccoon tore the mesh all to bits and ate my grapes--all of them

Every year, all my grapes disappear from the vines all at once.  I've been watching, trying to spot, and I think I have narrowed it down to the squirrels.  Any ideas for that varmit?  Do people net or bag just the fruit clusters?

Nice looking grapes, Steve! If you’re looking to grow more muscadine, try ‘Noble’ and ‘Carlos’ varieties. Not only are they delicious out of hand but they also are super productive and make great muscadine wine.

Kerry Rodgers wrote:

Ken Schmidt wrote: then a raccoon tore the mesh all to bits and ate my grapes--all of them

Every year, all my grapes disappear from the vines all at once.  I've been watching, trying to spot, and I think I have narrowed it down to the squirrels.  Any ideas for that varmit?  Do people net or bag just the fruit clusters?

That's how mine went. You may consider raccoons; I thought squirrels originally, but from the amount of daylillies completely tramped down below the vines, as well as seeing a raccoon on my deck the next night for the first time here in 25 years, I'm going with raccoon(s). I also read that they LOVE grapes.

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 was wondering if there is a way to prevent wasps from taking over my grape arbor? A couple years ago I had a good grape Harvest but wasps came and basically ate them all and I was scared to even try to harvest because of so many wasps. We had black-faced or white-faced hornet wasps and other kinds of wasps. I'm wondering if some neem oil would help? This year I have tons and tons of grapes and I really wanted to harvest them all. The other question is whether there's a way to prevent the worms that get inside them. My grapes are all concord grapes.

I’m very happy that other permies can grow grapes because I cannot. I went with a Masanobu Fukuoka way of growing and so far nothing good has happened. I don’t recall him specifically mentioning grapes as a no prune fruit but that’s what I did. I will remedy that this fall. I don’t remember the varieties at the moment but I have 3-4 that were recommended for where I live. They get afflicted with something new yearly. I also have pear trees that I have never pruned. The limbs grow so tightly that the fruit rots well before ripe. I’ll be pruning it this winter too.

I like table & wine grapes, but  Pierce’s Disease (Xylella fastidiosa) is a problem in the South. So I lean toward micadines, I was raised on wild Bulice/ which is the wild dark purple muscadines with low sugar content.
I have an Italian wine grape, it is small, not very sweet & has a thick hull, but It grows with out help once it is established, I need to make jam with it.

Grapes and Raccoons:
Yep, grapes are raccoon "crack" - once discovered, they WILL continue to raid and clean out every single ripe grape.

Dogs, if left loose and willing to "guard" can be a good deterrent; but electric mesh/fencing is truly the only effective measure.

A solid metal (metal roofing) enclosure around the area is an option, albeit labour intensive and potentially expensive (if "used roofing sheets are unobtainable). Metal is unclimbable IF posts are on the inside and there are no overhanging trees, bushes, equipment, buildings etc. that would bridge the enclosure.

Ken Schmidt wrote:I had my first vine set grapes this year. I even had a fine mesh 'shield' to keep the japanese beetles from devouring the leaves like they did last year. They were forming beautifully, then a raccoon tore the mesh all to bits and ate my grapes--all of them (I know it was a raccoon, because my dog chased him onto the roof one night when I was letting him out. I'm in suburbia, and this was the first I've seen of the little bandits. Has anybody had any successful ways of protecting their grapes from raccoons? Like I said, I'm in suburbia, so 'grow more' isn't an option. They're on the thin side yard between me and the neighbor's house, and really seem to do well in that spot. Lots of various other plants growing beneath/around them.
Thanks!

I know the feeling Ken, I've had raccoons get a lot of my fruit before.

One thing that I've noticed that has helped keep raccoons and squirrels from cleaning off all the fruit, (when you aren't able to just grow more like you mentioned), I've noticed that if I can pick the fruit as it gets ripe, it really seems to help. When I've left some of the fruit to hang ripe for a few days, I've gone out to harvest it, only to find it all suddenly has disappeared.  If I can stay up on the harvest, it seems like I don't have as many issues with the little thieves.

Thomas Black wrote:Nice looking grapes, Steve! If you’re looking to grow more muscadine, try ‘Noble’ and ‘Carlos’ varieties. Not only are they delicious out of hand but they also are super productive and make great muscadine wine.

They sound tasty Thomas, thanks for the recommendation, definitely will check them out.

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 wonder if they will make tasty juice? It seems like some grapes that don't taste that well for fresh eating can make super tasty juice.

I'm also interested to see if anyone else has any good grape recipes.

Raisins?

Jennifer Byler wrote:I was wondering if there is a way to prevent wasps from taking over my grape arbor? A couple years ago I had a good grape Harvest but wasps came and basically ate them all and I was scared to even try to harvest because of so many wasps. We had black-faced or white-faced hornet wasps and other kinds of wasps.

From what I've seen on my grapes, the wasps move in to eat the leftovers from the birds, who are the ones that actually damage the fruit, and then the waps are attracted to the sugary goodness and move in to eat the leftovers.

I'm wondering if some neem oil would help?

I personally don't like to spray mine with anything. Even the "organic" sprays seem to have negative effects on the beneficial insects and fungi, and all their complex beneficial relationships.

Picking them quickly after they ripen should help reduce bird damage.

I've also found that growing the grapes on living trellises, like trees and bushes, helps to hide the grapes some from the birds, and can greatly reduce the number of grapes that the birds get.

The other question is whether there's a way to prevent the worms that get inside them. My grapes are all concord grapes.

It sounds like fruit fly larva, which are usually only in over ripe fruit. Picking the fruit as it ripens should totally elimate the issue.  Grapes usually aren't targeted by weevils or other pests that get in the grapes before they ripen.



Hope this helps!

Scott Stiller wrote:I’m very happy that other permies can grow grapes because I cannot. I went with a Masanobu Fukuoka way of growing and so far nothing good has happened. I don’t recall him specifically mentioning grapes as a no prune fruit but that’s what I did. I will remedy that this fall. I don’t remember the varieties at the moment but I have 3-4 that were recommended for where I live.

I couldn't get European grapes to grow here, many of which were "recommended" for this area, but they had so many disease issues here and weren't really adapted to the local climate. It made all the difference in choosing disease resistant varieties that were more adapted for growing here.

My grapes also just seemed to get a lot tougher and healthier about year 3 or 4 if I'm remembering correctly.

Another big thing that has helped my grapes a lot, is having well draining soil to grow in and mulching with fall leaves to create super nutrient rich soil high in organic matter.

I am letting the majority of the new grapes I plant grow unpruned on other living trees or bushes, and can't say enough positive things about it so far, such as super healthy plants, almost no work, and helps to hide the grapes from birds so I can eat more.

This muscadine on a trellis has been unpruned the last two years, and I also left most things growing wild under it to help build up the soil naturally. As a result, the crop last year was overwhelming compared to the previous years, how many grapes there were, and this year seems to be going to be even more and put last year to shame.

Joe Grand wrote:I like table & wine grapes, but  Pierce’s Disease (Xylella fastidiosa) is a problem in the South. So I lean toward micadines.

The European table grapes I tried here died rather quickly. However hybrid table grapes have thrived here, being a lot more disease and pest resistant here.

Muscadines are one tough plant here.

Hello all! Excellent thread. Gorgeous grapes and muscadines Steve, thank you for sharing all you have learned!

Samantha, you should be able to use the grape leaves for cooking if the grapes are not to your taste. Though other than fresh & jammed (which didn't work for you), and as juice or raisins (which were already mentioned) I do not know of many other options other than maybe adding them to a fruit salad to maybe enjoy the natural freshness of other fruits. There are recipes like waldorf salad (which I personally cannot stand) and others on sites like allrecipes. Good luck!

Jennifer, about the tiny worms, they may be grape beetle larvae, you should be able to google it. I too am very hesitant to use any form of pest control but you should be able to use BT if absolutely necessary. It too will kill beneficials like neem oil does but not to quite as much of an extent in my experience.

And, I have a question myself! I have recently moved to Melbourne, Australia and I will be trying to grow some grape vines in large (45L) pots. They will be on either side of a sidewalk in a highly visible area so my potting choices were limited by the local council who insists everything must look pretty. They will have to grow in the pots for 2-3 years most likely, I am looking for good land near Melbourne but between insanely high land prices and not having tons of money to invest it is going to take me a while. I am hoping to use these and a few other plants (everyone recognises grape clusters!) to show passers by how much even a small suburban yard can produce instead of lawn and I am looking for suggestions on growing the grapes in these large pots (because I have only ever grown them in the ground) and economical trellising ideas to maybe arch the plants over the side walk. Normally I would use cattle panels but those are very hard to get here and super expensive, and I have a roommate that is about 6'6" and I want him to be able to walk through there without getting hit in the head. (I am also quite tall for a girl so I appreciate this as well) Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks all, you guys are awesome!

Sounds like a neat project Aimee!

Just a quick question on the local council rules, could you provide a little more detail on the restrictions?

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?

You could try grape pie, my family liked that.  It's a lot like a blueberry pie,  but you have to precook the grapes and strain out the seeds.

One time I made grape tamales,  which the kids really liked.  Mixed grape puree into the masa along with some peanut butter. They were fruity but not sweet.

Yes, Steve. The council here is not as bad as say some home owners associations but they do require things look "pretty" they do not allow permanent fences to be added but things like veg in the front yard is okay so long as it is kept looking pretty. But something like a tyre planter wouldn't fly. It is a little more strict for me purely because my front yard is right off once of the busiest non-interstate roads in the city. -_- And a lot of people get stuck in rush hour traffic looking at my yard.

However, I have decided to try to make the best of the situation in making my yard a permaculture paradise within the limits I am allowed to as a renter. Which is why the grapes are going into large pots, though maybe someone has a better idea, I wanted something that evoked abundance and instant recognition from all the passers by. With roughly 50k people seeing my yard every day I figured if I could make my yard look like heaven, it might get more people interested in permculture in suburbia. I am working with a very tiny yard unfortunately, compared to a normal suburban block. And my largest priority is to create as much of a screen/impressive food hedge along the front as possible with fast growing varieties to curtail the noise.



And the council will not allow me to replant the nature strip, it must remain lawn. Sorry if that is too much information. I am doing it all as frugally as possible because I am saving to purchase land in Melbourne at my very first opportunity, but 2020 is being cruel to us all and slowing down my progress on that. Not shown in the layout above is that there are many herbs planted in underneath everything. I am also nervous about planting too densely but we need as much sound/wind deadening as possible. The sidewalk to the house is where I plan to put the grapes, so anyone looking in can see the gorgeous bounty of grapes hanging down, along with the food hedge. And I have been told I can put a sign out during the day on the nature strip so long as it is not left there overnight.

I see this as a huge chance to raise awareness of permaculture in a suburban setting, may even get some business out of it, but I do not want to get ahead of myself. That is likely only wishful thinking since covid tanked my normal business and I have been working for many months now at significantly less than minimum wage, often for more than 80 hours a week, to pay the bills. I am just thankful I can pay the bills, I know many cannot. And with that in mind, please stay safe everyone. It is so scary right now! Any suggestions on growing the grapes in the pots and how to trellis them economically but without it being a permanent fixture are very greatly appreciated! I've got a lot of experience with many things but growing trees in pots is something I am having to figure out as I go along! But many of my most valuable trees/plants I am going to want to take with me in a few years are going into pots for now until I get land.

Rubbermaid sells large "stock tanks" that are relatively inexpensive, lightweight (until one fills them with soil!) and can make sturdy, decent looking, semi portable planters.

I have several that are about 3x5 feet, a foot deep; and 2x3+ feet that are pushing 3 feet deep.

They also serve as great ponds or "water features", and the shallow ones would be great for hydroponic gardens or water plants.

If set up on pallets they would be easy to move with a rental forklift.

Trellis for grapes: could/would one inch PVC pipe be used? It is lightweight, inexpensive, flexible, and there are lots of "connectors" that could "T-off" for cross pieces.

It could also be painted (although it might take "nasty" paint) to fit the restrictions in the neighborhood.

Thanks for the additional info Aimee!

Aimee Hall wrote:I have decided to try to make the best of the situation in making my yard a permaculture paradise within the limits I am allowed to as a renter. Which is why the grapes are going into large pots, though maybe someone has a better idea

If you are able to plant them in the ground, that would personally be my first choice. The work can be almost nothing if they are planted in the ground. In pots they will require a lot more inputs, like frequent watering, soil, and can struggle if you are away from them for a few days.

If you are wanting to grow them in pots so you can move them to your future property, the vines will probably be really big by 2-3 years and could be really hard to transplant, and the plant would probably be stressed from being transplanted after being so big and also being grown in a pot for so long previously.

You could take cuttings of the vine (if it's a non patented variety), to create your own new vines, and leave the older one for others to enjoy, possibly a win win. If it's planted in the ground, it will probably be so big in 2-3 years that you could most likely easily take 10 cuttings to root and create 10 new grape vines just like the existing one, to take with you to your new property or gift some to others!

Those large pots sound good if you need to plant them in pots, and the larger the pots the better in my opinion, and the ones you mentioned sound plenty big to give the roots more room to spread out and create a healthy plant.

For the soil in the pots, I would use cool compost from plants, without manure or hot compost so it won't burn the vines, if you have it, which will give the plants a lot of nutrients they will need to help naturally fight off the diseases. You could also buy an organic compost soil if needed. You could add a leaf mulch on top of the soil that should help the soil retain more moisture, and also the leaf mulch will break down into really fertile soil and provide extra beneficial nutrients for the plants.

If you have a way to catch and collect rainwater to water the vines with, that would be best in my opinion, as tap water is probably treated with chemicals that will generally kill most soil life. It can also be best to not overwater, as wet feet can stress the vines and make them more succeptible to diseases.

I wanted something that evoked abundance and instant recognition from all the passers by. With roughly 50k people seeing my yard every day I figured if I could make my yard look like heaven, it might get more people interested in permculture in suburbia. I am working with a very tiny yard unfortunately, compared to a normal suburban block. And my largest priority is to create as much of a screen/impressive food hedge along the front as possible with fast growing varieties to curtail the noise.

I love that!

The sidewalk to the house is where I plan to put the grapes, so anyone looking in can see the gorgeous bounty of grapes hanging down, along with the food hedge. And I have been told I can put a sign out during the day on the nature strip so long as it is not left there overnight.

I think the arch idea is neat. How cool would it be to be able to walk under the arch trellis and pick grapes.

Just a few things to consider when building the trellis, you may want to make the top of the arch pretty tall to be able to walk under it conveniently without having to constantly cut it back, as the vines will probably hang down a few feet, and creating a strong arch would be important to support the heavy grapes as they're growing.

I think the arch is way cooler, but for an easier option I've seen grapes growing really well on just a strong post in the ground. A post could be put in the ground on each side of the path to grow a different variety on each post, with the posts maybe about 7 feet tall (2 meters). I would let the grapes naturally bush out, which should create a nice edible grape column on each side of the path, which could be a little easier to build and maintain.

I see this as a huge chance to raise awareness of permaculture in a suburban setting, may even get some business out of it

That sounds awesome, I hope your grapes turn out well, whatever you decide to do, and would love to see pictures of how they turn out!

Thank you for all your suggestions Steve! Unfortunately they do have to be in pots because the land lord put a hard no on the grapevines going in the ground, but they have let me get away with many other good things like adding a banana bed! =D I do water with rainwater, I am fortunate we have a huge rainwater collection tank and I usually use the bottom few inches of my pots filled with sand and put drainage holes just above for overflow to work as mini wicking beds. And I was thinking when I move the pots I would definitely take cuttings and share, as well as transplanting as gently as possible, maybe while the vines are dormant would be best? That is when I used to move the babies and they never seemed to notice.

Has anyone by chance tried growing fungi in the mulch around the base of their grape vines? If so, please let me know which kinds and how it went.

I will definitely try to post any pictures here once I figure out the logistics! =D

Steve Thorn wrote:I know the feeling Ken, I've had raccoons get a lot of my fruit before.

One thing that I've noticed that has helped keep raccoons and squirrels from cleaning off all the fruit, (when you aren't able to just grow more like you mentioned), I've noticed that if I can pick the fruit as it gets ripe, it really seems to help. When I've left some of the fruit to hang ripe for a few days, I've gone out to harvest it, only to find it all suddenly has disappeared.  If I can stay up on the harvest, it seems like I don't have as many issues with the little thieves.

Thanks; that's a good strategy, Steve. This being my first year with actual grapes, it seemed awfully early to harvest them--they were still pretty small, and I had read it was more like Sept when grapes are ripe. So I thought I had much more time before even considering harvest. After raid part 1, I tried one or two of the remaining ones; they still seemed a bit tart, so again, I didn't think they were ready yet. Then the rest went a day or two later. I'll have to get a better feel for when grapes ripen in KC...
I will probably try some coyote urine, and/or a couple courses of electric wire next year. On the plus side, I guess the vines themselves will continue to get stronger each year...

Steve Thorn wrote:These are some photos of my 5 existing table grape vines that are currently producing fruit.

Each photo is of a different variety of grape.

It's really neat to see the slight differences in the leaves, and also the differences in the shape and size of the grape clusters.

I've long noticed that different plants of the same species will definitely have different growth patterns, I liken it to different personalities of different children born to the same parents. Of course I talk to my plants, most especially at transplanting time to tell them what I mean to do to nurture them. I give praise when they are looking or producing well, and commiserate if they seem a little pekid.

I used to live on a 1 acre rural plot that was nearly surrounded in grape vines. At the front of the property were both a thompson-like green and a red flame-like reddish table grape that were on a trellis like you showed first. I don't know how old they were, but if I based a guess on the size of the base of each plant they were only a few years old, no more than 5 or 6. Gosh they were tasty.  Along the back and coming forward on the other side of the property were even younger concords, but with seeds. They all had more shade than I think they really wanted and were leggy with small harvests. But boy oh boy was the fresh grape juice tasty!!

This property was the closest I've come thus far in my life to having my dream property, full of fruit, nuts, and space for the garden, chickens, and a few rabbits. The dream didn't last and divorce ensued. But it was so much fun while it lasted. And so I can't wait to get to the "homestead" property my daughter has recently purchased in westernmost West Virginia stradling a hill (or maybe back there they are considered mountains?). She is setting aside some space for me to revisit my dream. Grapes are definitely in the plan, and the start of a real homestead.

Aimee Hall wrote : However, I have decided to try to make the best of the situation in making my yard a permaculture paradise within the limits I am allowed to as a renter. Which is why the grapes are going into large pots, though maybe someone has a better idea, I wanted something that evoked abundance and instant recognition from all the passers by.

You CAN put them in large pots, and I will caution you to somehow make sure those pots are shaded so the root zones won't super heat and cook the roots. I've been having that problem here in Southern California growing anything in large black pots. I have started to drape a heavy fabric around my pots to shade the side walls and prevent the root burning that is happening.

I think if it were me, I might just take Steve's advice to put them in the ground, where the roots will be happiest/coolest. Then you can begin practicing taking and rooting cuttings so these plants can both stay behind for someone else, and go with you to the future property! Best of both worlds and you learn a new skill!

For me, since I can't take most of my plants with me when I move across country, what can has or is going in the ground. I have a tangerine, meyer lemon, banana and pomegranate that were all in pots for several years. I recently planted them in the ground. They are so much happier now. The plants on my porch will be looking for new homes among my few friends and acquaintances, or the neighbors maybe. But I will try to dig up and bring along the paper whites (a daffodil), purple iris' from my now deceased mom, and "pink ladies" bulbs that have followed me for nearly 2 decades now from house to house.