Grow Your Own Magazine

Does anyone grow grapevines? I planted a little vineyard two years ago and am hoping to make a little wine this year. Nobody around here has ever tried to grow grapes, so they all think I'm nuts.

Yep, I've got Boskoop Glory (red), Van der Vroege (white) and the purpurea cultivar. No grapes yet... but fingers crossed

What do you grow and how many?
By the way, where are you?

Where do you live ? If it is Aberdeen or Shetland you ARE nuts ?
If Southern England I believe you should be successful.
I have lakemont in a greenhouse but it was only planted in November.

I'm down in Co Kerry; I'm growing Rondo, Orion and Phoenix - 25 of each.

I've got two in the greenhouse. One is cabernet Sauvignon that I planted in a large box last year and it has three leaders up the side of the greenhouse and about four foot along the eves. It's just starting to burst into life now.

The other is an indeterminate variety, pinkish in colour that did really well in an other allotment holders greenhouse. He was feeding the grapes to his chooks in bunches until I had a taste of them . They taste devine, so I took a few cuttings last year and to cut a long story short only have one plant left. It's in a 7 inch pot at present, in full leaf and is just awaiting me deciding where I am going to put it!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

It should be ideal down there with the warm influence of the Altantic. I've seen a rondo orchard in the Netherlands and you should be at the same lattitude. You could be on to something!

That's the first bit of encouragement I've got! Many thanks!

I'm growing a Rondo and two Regent against a stone wall which holds a tremendous amount of heat after a sunny day. I'm hoping to get enough grapes to make a gallon or two for ourselves.



Have you spoken to the people at Derrynane Vineyard, possibly the most westerly European vineyard, and just down the road from you. Stephen Skelton's 'The Wines of Britain & Ireland' list a few vineyards in Co Cork too.

Cheers, Mark

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http://rockinghamforestcider.blogspot.com/

I didn't know about the Derrynane vineyard! That's very helpful - I'll make enquiries. Thank you!

Littlemark, your vines look fine. Have you any idea how much wine ro expect from each vine?

I wish I new! They are Guyot trained, and cropped well last year, but despite netting them at the first signs of bird problems, the cheeky Blackbirds found their way in and continued to feast. I admitted defeat and let them strip the lot. This year I'll be netting them properly, and hope to get maybe a gallon per vine, though this is a wild guess.

Mark

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Apparently birds can be scared by doubled backed cds shiny side out, I will try that this year.
Also for grapes if you grow blackberries the birds will leave them alone.

just got a aurore & a merlot vines plus a kiwi fruit will they grow in my plot ok,any advice would be welcome.just want to try some thing different from veg.

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I don't know about aurore - but I think the merlot should be under glass (or polythene) to ripen its grapes.

Is there the kiwi fruit one which has male and female flowers ?

No, but there are many varieties which are autofertile - like beans are - so they don't need a pollinator, the flowers are neither male or female but are bred to be both at the same time.

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TonyF, Dordogne 24220

We planted the first phase of our 'vineyard' last autumn. The plants (and advice) came from the national collection - Edwards in Herefordshire.

We're about midway between Halfpenny Green and Wroxeter, both English vineyards with medal winning wines, so we're hoping ours will be palatable!

We've also got some eating grapes, which are more established, both in a tunnel and outside and they produce good crops.

got my kiwi at lidl only £3.49 & its self polinating

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hey i got aurore and gargarin this year and they both bursting into life.i asked the people i got them from if they would grow ok were i am and they said they would. the other type they said i could use is boskoops glory i think i may get one next year if these definately do ok.
let us know how yours do if you do not mind.
i have aurore in the greenhouse and aurore and gagarin in the polytunnel.

new member here so hi to everyone
i just got an allotment this year for first time ,ive never growen anything before
but i am getting plenty of advice from the folk in plotts next to me ,many thanks to them
iv pict up some vines from lidles ,kiwi,grape also strawbs and tomatoes alsow growing vedge so any advice i can pick up on this site will be very helpfull, many thanks in advance
jim

The book "Foundations of American Grape Culture" by Dr. T.V. Munson is an excellent reference on heirloom grape varieties, especially in North America. Reproductions of the book published about 1900 are available from the Munson Memorial Vineyard (Link The T.V. Munson Memorial Vinyard and Viticulture - Enology Center.)
Dr. Munson in Texas and a colleague in Missouri developed root stocks that saved the French vineyards in about 1900. Lots of great information from Dr. Munson and the 100+ grade varieties he developed at his vineyard in Denison, Texas.

Hi

I'm in Manchester and it wasn't a great summer last year, but I have a 'Black Hamburg' in my greenhouse and have trained it for the last 3 years, and I let it fruit for the first time last year, we had 5 good bunches of grapes, all ripened and were absolutely lovely to eat (Dessert Type) and this year have planted a 'Sauvignon Blanc' outside and am going to train this the double guyot system so if I have any luck with this I will let you know but it will be next year before I let it produce any grapes. I was told when I first planted my 'Black Hamburg' that to get 1 gallon of wine you need at least 12lb of grapes.

Hi everyone,

I have inherited with a new house what i thought was a dead vine but recently it has exploded into life and is threatening to take over my greenhouse - if anyone has any advice on what i should do with it, in terms of pruning etc, I would be very grateful.

I feel it's only fair to warn you though, that I'm a complete gardening novice..!

The growth your vine is putting on now will have the flowers, and therefore the grapes you'll want later in the year. The new growth will continue throughout the Summer, and you can prune much of this back if it becomes excessive without harming the vine.

As far as reducing the size of the old wood (the bit that looked dead in the winter), vines respond very well to hard pruning during the Winter. I hard prune my vines back in January, removing 90% of all the growth from the previous year. This will leave you with a permanent 'stock' which will produce plenty of new growth in the early Summer. The size of this 'stock' will determine how much growth, and therefore fruiting potential you will get. The less growth you have, the better chance you'll get good sized grapes which will ripen properly, so if grape production is most important it's often good to prune very hard back to a short stubby stock. Really huge vines are excellent for appearance, or shade over a pergola, but often struggle to ripen the grapes properly. Growing in a greenhouse will of course help in this regard.

Cheers, Mark

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http://rockinghamforestcider.moonfruit.com/
http://rockinghamforestcider.blogspot.com/