Grapevine wilting

[owtfornowt]

Hi there, any experts on grapes out there my vine has just started to flower and looked really good then all of a sudden it started wilting like it was short of water. I've dug round the root looking for signs of weevil but found nothing. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

[Beersmith]

One possibility is simply spring frosts. Grape vines are generally winter hardy and can survive very harsh winter weather but once they start to grow in spring they are actually quite delicate and a hard spring frost can cause a lot of damage.

I don't have a grapevine but do have a kiwi vine. It is similar.  When dormant it seems to take any amount of cold, but once the buds start to swell, frost sends the buds black and damages new shoots.

Don't take this as certain. There could be other possibilities. But worth researching further on line.

P.S.  I would add that I detest late frosts and cold spring weather. Newly emerging spuds, fruit blossom, and tender plants of all sorts get killed or damaged.  For some crops the damage emerges later as the cold tends to trigger running to seed in variety of crops like beetroot, celeriac, leaf beet, etc.  A real nuisance!

[owtfornowt]

Thanks beer smith, I've trolled the internet and found nothing that matches the problem so I was beginning to think down that line myself. I've had to lower the vine because the tips were getting burnt as they touched the roof glass also my mate has one going the same way and that was from a cutting off mine.Thanks for the reply happy digging.

[Beersmith]

I'm getting a bit slow these days.

It didn't occur to me that the vine was under glass,. Silly me. My kiwi is outdoors. I'd suppose much less likely to be frost damage if under cover. Hmmmmm!

[owtfornowt]

Hi beer smith, it still gets pretty cold in an unheated greenhouse. One of my mates has a massive greenhouse with a night heater in and his vine is thriving his tomatoes are like half size golf balls and everything else is really well on, that's what made me think it could be all the late frosts we've been having here in South Yorkshire.