grapes
ianq61
Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hi all i have inherited a grape vine with our house, its about 5 years old and is a black grape variety thats all i know. The problem is that for the last two years it has only produced very small fruit, about the size of a blackcurrant! does anyone have any ideas with the limited info i have for you?
0
Posts
Hi
I can only tell you what we do with our grape vine which is a white variety that is used to make wine (if we get enough bunches). We tend to cut off some of the bunches so that the best looking ones get the chance to grow on, which seems to work for us, and if its looking too leafy we cut off some of the side shoots too.
Sounds like it has had a poor start in life. Ideally they shouldn't be allowed to fruit until the third year then the number of bunches should be limited for a couple of years. Even when you reach the optimum number of bunches you may need to thin individual bunches to get good sized grapes.
Have they been watered at all? Grapes are tough but they will need water to swell fruit just like any other fruiting plant. Has it been trained/pruned at all?
I would cut off almost all of the bunches now and let the plant devote its energy to producing better roots. Next year limit it to a few bunches.
It sounds to me like it must be a Vitis labrusca Concord which is an american grape. We have one on our pergola. The grapes have a distinct taste, different from large grapes, but we love them. See the Wikipedia description below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis_labrusca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_%28grape%29
This is a pic of our grape vine.
We planted it purely to give us shade over a seating area, but we usually get a fair amount of grapes. As we only make grape juice and don't attempt wine making, we just let them do their own thing, some years are better than others.If you want large grapes you have to reduce the number of bunches and thin out the remainder with grape scissors, quite a time consuming job. Ours are never sweet enough to eat so I don't think they are a dessert variety. Lots of information available on the web.
Chris
Many thanks for all your input. I think i need to thin the bunches as i have kept it well pruned and cut back when needed!