Topic: Advise needed re grape vine

[Digeroo]

I have had it about three years and it is now a couple of metres high.  Got loads of flowers though the snails ate all last years.

Its leaves are all looking rather small and yellow.  Is this normal?  Should I feed it with something?

[laurieuk]

Difficult to say with out seeing a picture but I would not expect it to be that tall in a short s[pace of time, have you pruned it to help form fruit buds.

[Tee Gee]

Its leaves are all looking rather small and yellow

Is it water-logged?

I am finding that since peat free and peat reduced composts come on the market some makes become quite saturated simply because the manufacturers are not adding as much sand/grit.

In other words they are economising too much.

It was often the opposite with peat based composts they often dried out and were a devil at times to re-wet!

[goodlife]

Is you grape planted in ground or in container? Is it outside or in GH?
How have you looked after it since you planted it?

[Digeroo]

Looks like my last post to this thread got lost.

The vine has begun to perk up.  I fed it.  I think it might have got a bit too cold.  Quite a few of the leaves which were very translucent yellow now have brown edges.  The rest is beginning to green up, though still does not look great.  I think next year I will put a fleece over it early in the year. 

It is right next to the house wall and a water but so I thought it would be ok.  But we tend to be prone to late frosts, being quite a way from the sea. 

Many thanks for your posts.

[ed dibbles]

Grape vines can get frosted after bud break but they usually regrow from latent buds growing healthily for the rest of the season even if the cropping is reduced or lost for that season. Covering the vine on the one or two frosty nights that pose the greatest danger is certainly a good idea.

Some grape vines can take up to five years to "find their feet" looking rather poorly for the first few years before suddenly turning into the proverbial "triffids"

The fact that your vine is already producing fruit means this may not be the case with your vine.

Slugs and snails can be a real nuisance to ripening fruit, more indirectly, as any nibble or blemish is likely to presage botrytis, also wasps which hollow out the grape. De-leafing around the bunches discourage the snails a little.

As it's now growing away I suggest letting it grow normally for the rest of the year, harvesting what fruit you can and prune accordingly in the winter.