Growing Grape Vines in Missouri

Select a location that offers grape plants full sun and well-draining soil. Plan to plant your grapes near a fence or to erect a trellis system.

Turn over the soil with a shovel to aerate it and break apart soil clumps. Remove rocks, weeds and other debris from the soil. Add a 2-inch layer of compost or manure across your garden bed to enrich the soil with nutrients for your grape vines. Turn the soil with your shovel one more time to mix the organic material into the native soil.

Dig a hole twice as wide and just as deep as your grape vine. Pull your grape vine from its container and set in in the hole so the vine is vertically straight and situated at the same depth in the soil as it was in the container.

Fill the hole with soil, gently firming soil around the plant.

Water the plant until the soil becomes saturated and compresses around your grape vine. Water the newly planted grape vine with 1 inch of water per week thereafter.

Cut back a newly planted grape vine, leaving the strongest cane and removing all others. Trim that strong cane back so it has only two buds. Allow the plant to grow all season long.

Fertilize the grape vine when you observe new growth, typically within a month after planting. Scatter 1/4 cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer around the grape vine 12 inches from its base, then water the soil to work it in.

In subsequent years, fertilize in the spring when the buds swell using 1 cup of 10-10-10 the second year, 1 to 1-1/2 cups the third year and 1 to 2 cups every year thereafter.

Train your grape vine along the fence or up a trellis during its second year. For a single vine, sink two 5-foot wooden poles into the ground 8 feet apart. Tie one wire between then at a height of 2 feet off the ground and a second wire 2 feet above that. Tie the cane to the first wire when it reaches it or secure the cane to the fence using twine. Remove other canes to control the plant.

Continue to prune and train your grape vine, creating two fruiting arms that trail from each wire or along the top of your fence. Grape vines require regular pruning or they will quickly grow out of control and may contract disease. Always prune Missouri grape vines from November to March, when the vine goes dormant.