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Old 18-09-2012, 04:43 PM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
Posts: 1,340
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ragnar View Post
I was given a Pinot Noir vine as a present. I do not want to grow it
outside as I would not expect any fruit this far north (Manchester). So I
will plant it in a container in my conservatory.

Any advice from anyone who has done this successfully? I am not able to cut
a hole in the floor to allow the plant to root in the natural ground, nor
can I grow it outside and train it in through a hole in the wall as I have
seen suggested.
If you could usefully grow specialist wine grapes like Pinot Noir in a glasshouse, the Netherlands would be a great producer of wine. If you want to grow grapes indoors and get useful output, get an eating variety. Given the space, time and attention you are going to have to give it, it just isn't worth the bother growing a ridiculous variety, the vine itself only costs £15 or so. Pinot Noir is also known to be one of the most prone to disease and pests of all vines.

If you have a protected and sunny south facing wall, I reckon you could get useful grapes outdoors off one of the specialist far-northern grape varieties like Phoenix and Regent, with high fungal resistance, even in Manchester. All these Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines you see in nurseries for sale to ordinary garden customers, they are selling dreams not reality. The sparkling wine producers actually need the grapes to be very acidic, and are mostly within 30 miles of the south coast. I'm growing Phoenix outdoors in Bucks against a sunny wall. Last two years I have been eating grapes before the end of August, that's about 3 weeks before they pick the grapes in Bordeaux. This dreadful year it's a bit later but the grapes are already sweet and they'll be nicely ripe soon I reckon, couple of weeks more, but I'm getting a bumper harvest. Meanwhile down in Dorset, the vineyards with their Pinot and Chard are hoping the frost stays off until November. Makes a huge difference if you have an early cool-climate variety. As well as eating nicely, Phoenix also makes OK wine - nearby Frithsden vineyard produces it.