Topic: Seedless grapes

[marc555]

Can anyone recommend any red seedless grapes to grow in my greenhouse in the North East of England and where to buy from, also what size container will I need to grow them In

[ed dibbles]

Container first - you will eventually need a large container but they can be started in small containers and potted on into ever bigger ones.. grapes really need a deep root run to give their best.

However they can be grown in containers successfully but will not crop as heavily. If you can plant it in the ground just outside the greenhouse and train it inside then that is the most practical solution while saving a whole heap of watering.

There are so many suitable varieties of seedless pink/red grapes to choose from including Beauty Seedless, Bronx, Canadice, Einsette, Flame, Glenora, Mars, Reliance, Saturn, Somerset, Suffolk Red, Vanessa. There are a number of others that will all ripen under greenhouse conditions.

A web search for any of these names will find you suppliers but Sunnybank Vines who hold the national collection could save you a lot of googleing.

[marc555]

Will look into those different kinds thanks a lot, might lift a slab and put it in the ground inside the greenhouse

[Vinlander]

There are so many suitable varieties of seedless pink/red grapes to choose from including Beauty Seedless, Bronx, Canadice, Einsette, Flame, Glenora, Mars, Reliance, Saturn, Somerset, Suffolk Red, Vanessa. There are a number of others that will all ripen under greenhouse conditions.

A web search for any of these names will find you suppliers but Sunnybank Vines who hold the national collection could save you a lot of googleing.

Good List.

Most of these grapes cash in on the earliness and humidity-tolerance of North American species like V.labrusca ie. they are hybrids.

I have tried Beauty, Reliance and Glenora.

Beauty appears to have gained little from any hybridisation - but if you want something that tastes identical to the ones in the shops you might be interested.

Reliance is well-named - it is very early and prolific and the grapes taste good even when they are greeny-pink. As they colour-up more the labrusca taste really comes through - ending up very similar to the strawberry grape*. I think they are delicious but a very few unadventurous folk find them disconcerting.

Glenora has a stunning flavour and regularly comes out tops in US. flavour trials. I would describe the taste as ordinary grape but the cube of the intensity. Some people call them 'spicy' but I've never found anyone who wasn't wowed by them. It is easy, reliable and early but the crop is only half the others, and remember that every type of rat in creation puts them top of their hit list (winged-  tree-  and 2leg-  types in particular).

PS. These hybrids are much less resistant to vineleaf blister mite so don't grow them near other vines or brush past other vines on your way to them.

*NB. I am convinced the strawberry grape (aka Fragaria) is a symptomless carrier of these mites so avoid it like the plague.

[Vinlander]

Will look into those different kinds thanks a lot, might lift a slab and put it in the ground inside the greenhouse

Hi Marc

You should be aware that the accepted way to grow grapes is to have the root outside the greenhouse and the vine inside.

Grape roots actually like a cold winter - they crop better for it. You would have to be near the middle of a continent to find a winter that they wouldn't like.

Cheers.