How to Grow Grapes at Home

Growing grapes can be a challenging but rewarding experience.

Growing grapes at home is both fun and rewarding. You can harvest your own grapes for table use or for jams and jellies with the right cultivar and a few important tips. Many types of grapes are available, including Concord, muscadine, Catawba and hybrid varieties. Six grapevines produce enough grapes for an average family, according to North Carolina State University horticulturalist E.B. Poling. An important part of learning to grow grapes is determining the correct support and pruning techniques for the greatest yield.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Grape vines
• Water
• Trellis or arbor wires and stakes
• 10-10-10 fertilizer
• Fungicide

Instructions

1. Choose a well-draining site that has good sun exposure for most of the day. Avoid low points that retain frost. Plant the vines away from other foliage that blocks sunlight.

2. Dig a hole large enough to allow grapevine roots to spread out. Set aside the topsoil to replace over the vines. Set vines in the hole at or slightly below the level they were planted at the nursery. Place vines 8 feet apart if training on a trellis, or 4 feet apart if training on an arbor. Replace the topsoil and tamp it down firmly.

3. Train vines to grow on trellises or wires as they extend by carefully tying them to the support as they reach the next length.

4. Prune vines to create a strong central leader. Remove all shoots less than the diameter of a pencil. Prune vines every year after fruiting by cutting canes to 4 to 5 inches in length during the dormant season. Thin out the cluster of spurs that develop on vines.

5. Apply 10-10-10 fertilizer at a rate of 8 ounces per plant on the seventh day after planting. Increase to 1 pound in the second year, and 1 1/2 pounds thereafter. Spread fertilizer evenly 6 to 12 inches from the trunk in a circle around the planting.

6. Monitor grapes carefully to harvest before they become soft and overripe.

Tips & Warnings

• Plant vines in late winter and early spring.

• Set trellises or vine wires into the ground before you plant the vines to avoid damaging them.

• Depending on varieties, vines may produce red, blue, greenish-yellow, purple or black grapes. Each has a distinctive flavor.

• Wet springs and hot, humid summers bring grape diseases like black rot, botrytis blight, and gray rot. Consult your local agricultural extension service for advice on the best way to treat these diseases in your area.

• Weed regularly to keep the weed plants from competing with the grape vines. After vines grow, they will shade out most weed growth.

References

• North Carolina State University; Bunch Grapes in the Home Garden; E.B. Poling; January 1995
• Ohio State University Extension; Growing Grapes in the Home Fruit Planting; Gary Gao
• Grape Growing Methods; Growing Grapes at Home; Rene Mitterand; 2010