TheEasyGarden - Gardening Forum

Hi Iona and welcome!
I don't know very much about grapes, but I'm sure you need to keep weeds and other grapes out of the growing area of your cultivated grapes. If nothing else they will compete for nutrients and could vector in disease.
Let us know what zone you're growing in, I assume it's in a somewhat mild climate if you're even thinking about this in January!

Glad you've joined us!

Iona's Orchard wrote:

I'm looking to grow grapes and need help! Planted some last year and was wondering how to care for them? There are some wild grapes and thorns trying to weasel their way in. Should I dig them up or keep them cut back until the intended grapes are big enough to fend for themselves? Is it stupid to attempt this in January? All other info is appreciated. Also, who uses wild grapes for jams and such? Is it very productive?

If you be serious more information must be supplied. Some pictures of your planting and support set-up is necessary. Grapes take  little care but do require maintenance to get good production. I also have one vine of Sovereign Coronation but it produced little in 2011. I had not grapes in 2012 due to a killing frost in the early Spring.

Here is my efforts.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?AZQUW 16 September 2011 Concord Grapes

Thirty pounds of pristine Concord grapes were picked from my one vine,and made into juice. Twelve liters of juice was made from 30 pounds of grapes. Between two and three pounds of grapes for each liter. There were only about five earwigs found in the clusters.
Method: Cut grapes off the vines and each cluster inspected for damage to the fruit and damaged fruit removed. Washed,Weighed, then the grapes were removed from the cluster support by swiping with minor hand pressure across a one inch mesh plastic screen. This only took about five minutes per ten pounds. The first batch of ten pounds were simply juiced without adding any water. (The result was considered too thick so a liter of water was added to each ten pound batch to thin somewhat. The grapes were mashed with a potato masher with a liter of water added, then brought to a boil, and made into a mash with the portable hand blender. The mixture was then put through a screen to remove the fiber from the juice. The screen was small enough to prevent any seeds from passing through. Juice was placed in liter jars and pressure canned at 12 PSI for 15 minutes. This is a superb grape for the table. One of my favourites.


http://www.durgan.org/URL/?DKBJT 14 September 2011 Boca Noir Grapes

Boca noir grapes nine pounds were picked today, and made into juice. This grapes makes a very fine juice. The clusters do not ripen evenly, and if left too long on the vine the ripe ones fall off, and bugs infest the clusters, and sometimes mold. The grapes on the cluster are close knit. It takes about two pounds of grapes to make a liter of juice. Method was to remove the grapes from the clusters by swiping across a one inch screen, weighed, washed, water added to just cover the grapes and boiled lightly. The grapes were then made into a mash and strained, Pressure canned at 12 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SASIO 31 August 2011 Niagara Grapes

About forty five pounds of Niagara Grapes were picked from one plant and made into juice. It takes about three pound of these grapes to make a liter of pure juice, with no water added. Juice was made by washing, plucking the grapes from the support structure, boiling slightly, making a mash using the portable hand blender, separating the juice from the fiber by screening, placing in liter jars, and pressure canning at 12 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature. These grapes are slightly tart, but make a refreshing drink, and is a good substitute for wine without the alcohol.

Ditto to removing your wild grapes. Those things will spread and grow just about anywhere. After 4 years of DH digging them out, I'm still mowing wild grape starts in the field.

It would be nice to know where you're growing your grapes. Someone mentioned wild Muscadines - something that would never grow here. What we have wild are more like mini-Concords. I did know a lady who collected all the wild grapes and boiled them down for juice. Then in the winter she made the juice into grape jellies.

A lot of work for currant-sized berries that were seedy, but strained and sugared they worked well and the cost was easy.

I've got Concords - regular seeded and some un-seeded. The no-seeds are much smaller fruits. I also have a red (Catawaba) and a white (Interlaken?) grape variety that I spread across the country a year ago after pruning them. I collected the cuttings and mailed gobs of them off to gardening friends.

Glad to have you growing with us here.

Love, Smart Red

Ohhh no let them frost and make ice wine!  stuffs a big hit around here

The first thing you need to decide, and soon, is which cultivation method you intend to employ. If you are looking for good fruit production which, judging by your post, I assume you are, you will probably want to use one of the kniffin styles. Grapes can be grown on a trellis or fence and will provide excellent shade, but fruit production will suffer and disease could run rampant. Depending on what zone you are in there are several things to keep in mind.
First, if you are in a cold climate, try to plant the grapes on the highest ground you have available. The reason is that on very cold nights, the coldest air will tend to settle in the lower areas since it is heaviest. Second, keep those wild grapes and thorn bushes away. As mentioned earlier, not only will they compete with you cultivars for nutrients and water, but can also spread disease. Third, for production I would recommend a double T kniffin growing style. Basically, it looks like a capital T with two cross members instead of one. The main trunk support should be at least 6 feet high, the lower cross should be at least 3 feet off the ground and the upper cross at about 6 feet high. The width of the plant should be about 12-14 feet or 6-7 feet from the center support to the end supports. Make sure you use stainless steel cable to support the vines. Grapes can live for many years. Stainless steel cable will reduce the chances of having to replace a broken support several years from now, after the vines have adapted and grown around it. Fifth, maintain a regular pruning regimine. Once the vines begin growing, select the strongest to become the trunk. Loosely attach it to the center support to guide it up. Then select the four strongest laterals closest to the cross supports, one for each leg of the double T. Again, guide them along and loosly attach. Eventually they will get the idea and begin to latch on themselves. Within a year you should have a main trunk with four laterals.
Keep your grapes  fed and watered. Prune the laterals back to leave fruiting canes with 2-3 buds on them. Basically, the arms of the T will have small canes hanging from them about 8" long. Finally, get with your county extension agent for more localy important information, such as disease and insect problems specific to your area.