Topic: Vine...

[Crash]

Can anyone tell me what to do next with my vines. I have two, one I pruned in the spring not knowing what I was doing but cut it right back, the other I left. The pruned bush has fruit on it but I don't think it will be edible! The un-pruned bush has nothing. Do I cut the vine back every year? Or leave it to grow? Both vines are growing outside but sheltered from the worst of the elements,  if it helps we live in Suffolk so have slightly better weather than where I used to live in the baren North!

[Vez1]

I took on an allotment in April with a vine in the greenhouse. It was already all cut back for me, which I now know has to be done every year. you also have to thin out the leaves and fruit, I didn't know about the fruit part so now have too much but hopefully it will be fine.

[jennym]

When you say you pruned one and cut it right back, how big was it (diameter of stem)? And how did you cut it back?
When you say there's nothing on the other, no fruit? no leaves?

[Crash]

I think the vine was at least 3 years old and from what I can gather from the neighbours the last owner of the house didn't do too much in the garden apart from puling up the biggest weeds. I think the last people planted it and it was abandoned after that.

The unpruned vine has plenty of leaves but no fruit.

When I cut the vine back I did it with "Tesco" value pruning shears(£1.99!) and just cut off whatever looked dead. If I cut back and saw fresh looking wood I cut back further up the stem on the next shoot.

Sorry but I am new to growing!

[jennym]

Sounds like your pruned one inadvertently gave you a Guyot shape, which is the way the commercial growers do it. That is with a short main trunk and fruiting stems being renewed.
The other way is to select one main stem, and select 2 stems emerging from this, about a metre from ground. These will form your permanent framework, tie them in to form the shape of a letter T or wineglass. Side branches that come off from the permanent framework can be cut to 2 leaves length as they grow during the summer. Eventually these will become fruiting spurs. But you don’t want too many fruiting spurs, so you can cut some right off. Leave, say, one every 20cm. When the vine is actively growing in the summer is the time to do most pruning, reduce all unwanted stems that shoot out, and remove leaves that block the sun from the grapes. Most people don’t prune often enough. When the leaves drop in the autumn, you can do a final tidy up, but don’t leave this too late. Get it done straight away, and you know where you are. There are some websites giving info, but I'd get a book with pictures if I were you, or visit somewhere like Audley End (Saffron Walden) with its grapevines on show.

[Crash]

Cheers JennyM I can see where I've gone wrong from your reply. The grapes are all covered by leaves and a few of the shoots have grown to about 8'. I thought that these shoots would be taking vital nutrients from the fruit..... Maybe next year I'll get a few bottles of red from it!

[weedin project]

Best book I've seen is "Growing Vines to Make Wines" by Nick Poulter (ISBN 1-85486-181-6) which gives you a blow-by-blow description of what to do.  Available at most good Home Brew shops (or failing that, try the library!).

Basically you won't get a decent harvest off a vine that is less than 3 years old, but you can train established plants up quite quickly - just remember that this year's stem has next year's fruit in embryonic form in buds in the leaf axils.

My 13 grapevines were all planted last year, and I got about 8 grapes off them in 2004; this year I might get lucky and have about a 50% crop off 6 or 7 of them.  What I have done this year is to grow-on stems that I will bend into shape in November and which will produce (hopefully) a 100% crop next year.  That said one of my 3 my Pinot Noir looks as if it might not mature until the following year.

[Crash]

Jenny could you advise me on which book to buy?
Also could anyone tell me if it's (and how) possible to take a cutting so when I get my lottie I can plant some more out.

Don't forget I'm very new to this growing lark. ( I cook with Delias how to cook book. Take big sauce pan, put water in it....)

[Crash]

In the day light I'll take a couple of photos tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about.

Cheers for the title in last post.

[jennym]

A very basic book is 'The Fruit Expert' Dr.D.G.Hessayon which is part of what are generally known as 'The Expert' range. Cheap and cheerful, they give some straightforward tips.
Best of all is to go to a large library and see what they have available than if you like the books buy them. Otley college may help you with this.
(For weed identification, get a book on native plants of England or Northern Europe, I got a good second-hand one with a title like this. Also this webpage has some info:
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/weeds.htm)

[weedin project]

Crash
cuttings are dead easy - take about 6 prunings, each stripped back to a one leaf and a fluffy bit, and cut to length with a sharp knife just across a leaf-node; stuff the cut end in any old compost, keep them wet-ish for a few days, and I would expect a minimum of 2 out of 6 to take.  Best to do it now while they've still got some growing time in them.
They'll go limp at first, but whatever is still green after two weeks are OK! ;D   I did this 3 weeks ago with 4 cuttings and popped them in pots I was using to grow lettuce in, and 2 out of 4 have taken (looks like I'll have to lose the lettuce!).  

Mind you, cuttings are not recommended as most all commercial grapes are grown on specific root-stocks with grafted varietals.  Still, cuttings are free and if they succeed, it's a bonus, and if they fail it's fun trying. 8)