"Paul E. Lehmann" wrote:

DigitalVinyl wrote:


Thanks. Most of the canes were already a dark reddish brown and hard.
Towards the growing tips were the only green stems. They aren't mushy
but if the tips die i'm not too worried. I let them grow too long
anyway.

How are you going to prune them in the spring - cane pruning or cordon /
spur pruning?

If you are unsure how to properly prune, I suggest you get the inexpensive
book titled "From Vines to Wine" by Jeff Cox. You might even be able to
pick up a used copy at amazon.com It is one of the best books I have
found on growing, training and pruning grapes with lots of line drawings
illustrating the concepts.

I'm still unsure. From reading about, fruit is only produced on shoots
growing from one-year-old canes. This was the first year planted
(although they were supposedly two year roots).

The way they are now they have curved over eachother in a bow forming
an archway against the side of the house and railings. (They arch over
a stone alcove). I need to build trellis or something else to better
hold weight from grapes for next year.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...27.jpg&.src=ph

One run on the right from the grapes grabbed a hold of a nearby tomato
plant and wound its way up to the top of the porch (12-15ft high). It
latched onto all the support strings as well as the tomato vine. I've
since taken the tomato down but I'm not sure about that grape vine.

I've heard that the longer the vine the smaller the grapes? True?

I do have BOUNTIFUL CONTAINER GARDENING which has been an excellent
book and covers grapes. I'll look for the Jeff Cox book although I'm
not interested in winemaking at all. I can't drink the stuff.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
2nd year gardener
http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalfrazier/