View Single Post
  #7   Report Post  
Old 01-05-2003, 03:08 AM
John Savage
 
Posts: n/a
Default Grape advice requested

montana writes:
We moved into a house (three years ago, May) that has some grape plants
and while we get great vines and the young leaves are tender & delicious
when stuffed, we haven't seen one grape. Our neighbors told us that she
remembered that the vines did yield grapes in past years.


You don't say whether the vines produce their tiny bunches of flowers?
I imagine that grape flowers need to be pollinated by bees, so how
are you off for bees? Perhaps the local bees have been killed off by
pesticides, or land clearing? Did you have a lot of wet weather at
the time the grapes were in bloom? Wet weather might have kept the
bees at home, or might have caused fungal disease in the flowers.
I have seen grape vines growing 25' up through tall trees, dropping
grapes all over the footpath despite never getting pruned, so I'm quite
sure that pruning is not necessary for fruiting.
--
John Savage (news reply email invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)