Information on Grapevines

Seedless Table Grapes

• Seedless table grape cultivars such as Seedless Beauty, Black Corinth, Glenora, Jupiter Pat and Himrod are hardy to temperatures below 10 degrees Fahrenheit and ripen from early to midseason. By selecting early to late ripening varieties, gardeners enjoy a long harvest season. Black Corinth is a champagne-type, dark purple small grape with high sugar content and sweet taste. Himrod is a white seedless grape that ripens early with large, loose clusters of flavorful oval-shaped berries. Backyard garden grapevines thrive in a location that receives six to eight hours of direct sun each day.

Wine or Juice Grapes

• The Cayuga grape is an American cultivar grown for its light Reisling flavor as a juice or wine. It is a very productive vine with good resistance to the common grapevine diseases. Alpenglow is also an American grape variety. It develops white to light red grapes in long, firm clusters that ripen very early in the season. Grapevines begin to produce enough grapes to harvest during their third to fifth year. Wine or juice grapes often produce best on less fertile soil. Table grapes need deep, rich soil.

Planting

• Grapevine roots grow to depths of 15 feet or more, so soil must be well-draining to avoid root rot diseases. Mature compost worked into the topsoil ensures good drainage and soil fertility. If garden soil is hardpan or claylike, grapevines can be grown in raised beds. They are planted six to nine feet apart with a T-shaped wire trellis system in place at planting time. A grapevine can also be grown on an arbor, with one vine per 50 to 100 square feet of arbor space.

Pruning

• Grapes are harvested from vine stems that grew the previous year. The strongest main vines are chosen to grow and the remaining ones are pruned back during the grapevine's second winter dormant season. All but two of the strongest stems growing from the main stem are removed during the spring and trained on a wire trellis or up the arbor support. The main vines then grow smaller branches that produce leaves and grape clusters. Pruning is repeated each year during the dormant season, from November to early January.