Transplanting is identical to planting a bare-root grapevine. Remove it from its pot, checking the roots to make sure they’re intact and in good shape. If it’s rootbound, loosen the roots somewhat so that they can spread naturally.
Plant in well-draining, pre-prepared soil slightly deeper than it was originally planted (about 1/4″ to 1/2″ deeper). Backfill some of the dirt and pack it down firmly, then fill the rest of the hole with loose soil without heavy packing. Water it in well.
If you’re transplanting an older grape vine that’s attached to a trellis, this can be a very complicated process if not impossible. I recommend trying to avoid transplanting older vines whenever possible by starting them in a 15″ or larger pot so you don’t have to transplant them again.
Harvesting and Storing Grapes
The harvest is when the skill of the grower really comes into full play. Determining when your grapes are ready to be harvested is complex, and there are different ways to harvest for different future uses. Let’s go over the basics here so you have an indication of how to begin!
Determining Ripeness
If you’re planning on making raisins from your grapes, skip ahead to the “making raisins” segment below. But for all other uses, the harvesting process is similar.
As grapes come out of veraizon, their sugars will have developed somewhat. But deciding when the perfect time to harvest will be is highly subjective, and it’s a very short window. You want to harvest when the flavor is best, the grapes are full of juice, and the sugars are high.
Picking that time boils down to a few specific attributes, けれど、 and only you can decide which of these is of primary importance to you.
Taste: Every variety of grapes has a specific taste. It’s really good if you know what your specific grapes are supposed to taste like, but the goal here is to harvest when they are at their sweetest and before they begin to lose their plump juiciness. Pick from a few clusters and taste them!
Plumpness: Take time to feel the grapes with your hands. They should feel as though they’re full of juice, but not hard (which would be before the end of veraizon) or starting to wrinkle (which is after their peak).
Visual Test: Your grapes should be uniform in color on each bunch rather than a mixture of colors. If the colors are mixed, that bunch is still undergoing veraizon and should not be harvested yet.しかし、 color isn’t everything. It can take 1-3 weeks for sugars to form post-veraizon!
Another visual test is to examine the seeds inside the grape and check their color. The seeds should be uniformly brown, not tan or white.
Watch The Wildlife: If the birds are starting to greedily consume your grapes, it’s a sign of two things. One of those things is that you need to put bird netting up before they eat your entire harvest. The other is that your grapes are probably ready to eat, because the birds can tell!
Harvesting Grapes
The actual harvesting process itself is surprisingly easy. Simply take a cluster of grapes in your hand, find the stem at the top, and snip it cleanly off with sharp pruning shears or scissors.
If you’re concerned about spreading disease, sterilize your pruners between cuts.しかし、 as the plant’s going to be going dormant soon and likely will be pruned in the late winter, disease spread during harvesting is fairly uncommon.
Making Raisins
For raisins, you want to start by being sure that they are ripe as described above. But at that point, you want to prevent the plant from taking back any of the moisture that’s in the grapes, as that can reduce the sugar content of your finished raisins.
これを防ぐために、 you will need to cut through the one-year canes that are producing fruit as if you were pruning the canes, but leave them hanging in their current place. You can secure the cut canes to your trellis with plastic ties to support the fruit’s weight if necessary.
Allow the fruit to dry on the canes. The sun will cause the moisture in the grapes to slowly reduce, drying them out gradually without losing any of those essential fruit sugars. During this time period, avoid any moisture getting onto the leaves or fruit so damage can’t occur.
The leaves will dry out and fall off, exposing the fruit to full sun conditions and aiding in the drying process. Once the raisins are shriveled and leathery, just like storebought raisins, you can cut the clusters off and strip the raisins from the clusters.
必要であれば、 you can spread your raisins out to dry further on fine mesh trays which allow air to reach all sides of the fruit.しかし、 the longer you can leave your fruit exposed to the sunlight on the vine, the better it will taste!
Storing Fresh Grapes
As with so many other types of produce, moisture is the enemy when storing grapes. Any moisture can cause your grapes to develop mold or other issues, shortening their shelf life.
加えて、 taking grapes off their stem leaves an open spot at the stem end where bacteria can enter the fruit, breaking it down more quickly. That’s why single grapes seem to spoil so fast!
The best way to store your grapes is to place them in a ventilated plastic or mesh bag lined with paper towels to absorb any moisture. Keep them on the stem, and do not rinse them off before storing them. Be sure you remove any which are past their prime before storing.
Grapes stored in this fashion can last for 2-3 weeks, but you’ll still want to check on them.と、 もちろん、 the faster you eat them, the better they will be.
また、 one thing to remember:grape leaves themselves can be quite useful, and are often used in pickling or as part of Greek cuisine. Selecting healthy, lush grape leaves from your garden to use in Mediterranean recipes is an added perk!
Preserving Grapes
If you have fresh grapes that you wish to preserve, there are a number of ways to go about it.
I personally love to rinse off, full dry, and then freeze my table grapes. The grapes will thaw back out a little softer than before, but they actually taste fantastic in their half-frozen state and can be a delicious treat on a warm afternoon. They’re also great in smoothies!
Juicing your grapes or making jams/jellies out of them is also an option. Once juiced, the juice can be frozen to keep it intact or fermented into wine. Making jam or jelly with your grapes can also work extremely well as a sweet treat, and the resulting jars can be used at a later date.
Don’t forget that you can make grapes savory by making different chutneys from them. These combine grapes with other flavors to make for a distinctly different savory application!
A few varieties of grapes are used whole in canning, especially in fruit cocktail mixes.しかし、 the texture of your grapes change drastically in the canning process, becoming soft and slippery rather than firm and juicy. If that’s not a problem, canning works well!
Did you know you can pickle grapes? There are recipes available that will teach you how to pickle these fruits to make a sweet and tangy treat for a later date. A mixture of spices and vinegar with your grapes and grape juice will give them an interesting, unique flavor!
ついに、 break out your trusty dehydrator, as you can make grape fruit leather from the juice. A favorite of kids far and wide, fruit leathers can be stored wrapped in wax paper in an airtight container for quite a while, but they probably won’t last very long once made!
Troubleshooting Grape Problems
Grapes can be finicky in a lot of different ways. The environment has effects on the grapes, the weather has effects, etcetera。 But what of pests and diseases, and what other problems may arise?それについて話しましょう。
Early Bud Break
Early bud break 発生する可能性があります。 This is when the grape vines begin to come out of dormancy before the danger of frost has ended, and the buds show signs of life. Freezing conditions can cause serious damage to any new growth that might appear.
If you need to protect your plant during an early bud break situation (below 35 degree temperatures), set up a mister or sprinkler to continually mist your plants until the weather warms. While this seems counter-intuitive, the running water will prevent the buds from freezing again.
Coulure
Another problem commonly caused by weather conditions is coulure 。 Sometimes called shatter, coulure is when overly cold and rainy conditions or excessive heat at the end of the flowering stage prevents grapes from forming.
While this condition is most common in wine grapes, coulure can happen in other types as well. It’s important whenever possible to ensure that your vines have good conditions during the flowering stage to try to ensure that fruit set can occur.
Millerandage
ついに、 がある millerandage 。 This situation is also caused by cold or rainy weather during the flowering period, but instead of preventing grapes from forming, it causes the grapes to develop at different speeds, meaning that when some of the fruit is ready to harvest, the rest isn’t.
Millerandage can be both beneficial or detrimental to winemakers. Some varieties of wine are actually enhanced by having some less-ripe fruit juice mixed with the ripe. Others are distinctly harmed, fouling the taste of the resulting wine.
Ensuring that your grapes are evenly fertilized during the flowering period will prevent millerandage, but inclement weather can make that difficult.また、 try to protect your vines during the flowering stage as much as possible.
害虫
There are a number of pests which prey upon grape vines. When growing grapes, it’s important to try to defend both the plant itself as well as its fruit. Let’s go over the usual problem pests.
Root Aphids
アブラムシ in general can wreak havoc on grapevines, although the common garden aphids are more a pest of the fruit than of the vine itself.しかし root aphids of the Phylloxera family are a massive danger to grapevines, especially those used for wine grapes.
Root aphids will cause damage beneath the soil, making it hard to identify what the cause is. Plants lose their vigor, developing curling or withered yellow leaves. Fruits will be small or stunted. It can look very much like a nutrient deficiency.
To treat root aphids, you can use a diluted pyrethrin-based spray like Bonide Pyrethrin Concentrate また PyGanic to drench the soil along the roots. This should kill off most of the hatched aphids. Retreat again every two weeks to kill off subsequent hatchlings.
Japanese Beetles
Another common pest is マメコガネ 。 These love to devour the leaves and young fruit on your grapes, and when you see one, it indicates that there’s likely eggs and grubs hidden in the soil waiting to hatch.
ニーム油 is an effective preventative measure against Japanese beetles. While this does not outright kill the beetles, eating leaves with neem oil on them stops the larvae that hatch out of the eggs from reaching adulthood. It’s a slow process, but regular spraying will keep them away.
Black Vine Weevil
The larvae of the black vine weevil chew tunnels through your vine’s root system, causing severe damage and leaving the plant open to diseases. Adults will chew notches into leaf edges. These nonflying insects cause damage throughout their lifecycle.
Keeping adult weevils at bay can be done by spreading food grade 珪藻土 over all leaf surfaces and on the soil’s surface. While it needs to be reapplied if it gets wet, it’s a very simple way to deal with a bad problem. Beneficial nematodes will take out soilborne larvae.
European Grapevine Moth
NS European grapevine moth can become another major problem. Not only do the larvae of this pest feed on flowers and fruit, but they transmit diseases such as botrytis cinerea.実際には、 a multi-year battle was waged in Napa Valley when this pest appeared, ending in 2016.
The larvae of these moths can be destroyed by using bacillus thurigiensis 、 or BT. Available as both a 粉 または 噴射 、 this bacteria will poison the moth larvae and they will die off.
Parasitic Nematodes
Parasitic nematodes are another problem. These carry diseases such as grapevine fanleaf virus, and as they’re microscopic they are hard to locate. These live beneath the soil’s surface and cause root damage to your plants.
Defeating parasitic nematodes can be done in two ways. Beneficial nematodes can be introduced, and they will kill the parasitic ones as well as root aphids and other soilborne insects.さもないと、 a soil drench of diluted pyrethrins (see above) can be used to kill off all nematodes.
鳥
ついに、 the last pest isn’t a typical pest at all. 鳥 will happily eat Japanese beetles, European grapevine moths, and black vine weevils, making them beneficial most of the time.不幸にも、 they will also devour your fruit when it’s ripe!
Keeping birds at bay as your grapes ripen is usually your best bet.使用する bird netting to protect your fruit from bird attack while allowing the birds free access during flowering and early fruiting. This ensures that the birds will eat your pests, but not your produce.
病気
Some diseases which grapes develop can be beneficial in limited amounts.しかし、 most are dangerous to both the vine and your eventual harvest.
Botrytis Cinerea
灰色かび病 is both good and bad. In limited quantities right before harvest, this fungal grey mold can be used to concentrate the sugars in grapes.その時点で、 it’s often called the “ noble rot 「、 as it can be beneficial to winemakers. But too much of a good thing can be a problem.
This fungal mold is what also causes fruit to rapidly decay after harvest, and so for raisins and table grapes, prevention is important.しかし、 it’s tricky to fight.使用する ニーム油 as a preventative can help, as can spraying a copper fungicide on visible fungal growth.
I’ve written a lot more about the noble rot and how it can be beneficial in our piece on botrytis cinerea, and I definitely encourage you to go read more about this disease and how to manage or treat it, as well as how the “noble rot” can be of use in grape growing!
Fusarium spp.
フザリウム 、 one of the primary causes of damping-off, can cause basal rot in grapevines. This is often one of the diseases spread by root aphids, and a couple Fusarium species are common: Fusarium oxysporium 、 と Fusarium solani 。
As grape vines are nearly impossible to move once they’ve become established and there’s no treatment for fusarium, infected plants must be cut out and destroyed 。したがって、 it’s better to prevent fusarium from taking hold 。
Be certain to avoid overly-wet conditions in the soil, as that can promote fungal disease spread.加えて、 consider adding beneficial mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria to the soil. Our article on fusarium shares more methods of prevention as well!
Powdery Mildew
One of the most common issues when growing grapes is うどんこ病 。 Caused by fungal development on damp leaves, this mildew creates a whitish powder on the surface of leaves and can cause the plant to have difficulties with photosynthesis.
ありがたいことに、 powdery mildew is easy to treat. Regular applications of ニーム油 on all leaf surfaces will kill off any mildew spores in evidence and prevent further spread.
Black Rot
黒腐病 is a common and potentially disastrous fungal disease of grapes. This condition causes some of the grapes in a bunch to shrivel and become mummy-like, and leaves and shoots will develop brownish lesions.
現在、 no organic measures are 100% foolproof for eliminating black rot.しかし、 limited success has been achieved by maintaining dry leaves and stems 、 good pruning measures 、 and doing applications of copper fungicide on a weekly or biweekly cycle.
Some inorganic fungicides are available to treat black rot, so if you are comfortable with using chemical inorganic solutions on your fruit and vines, there are a number of types available.
Grapevine Fanleaf Virus
ついに、 そこには grapevine fanleaf virus 。 Spread by nematodes at the root level, this virus causes yellowing of the leaves and lowers fruit quality. It can be easily transmitted by nematodes between the plants, and there is no way to cure it.
Prevention is the key to this virus. If you find a plant showing signs of grapevine fanleaf disease, remove it entirely and dispose of it. Either do a pyrethrin soil drench or add beneficial nematodes which attack root-feeding ones. Sterilize your pruning tools between cuts.
Thank you to the Cordi Winery in Live Oak, CA for allowing me to take a number of close-up photos of their Primitivo vines (and for having some delicious wines, too)!また、 thank you to Dez Fuhrman for sharing your great photos of vineyards in and around Lodi, CA！
When properly cared for, you can start growing grapes and have fruit for decades to come. Do you grow grapes, そしてそうならば、 which varieties are your favorites? What do you do with your harvest? Share your vine knowledge and tales in the comment section!
