I have a grape vine which for the first time in three years has plenty of
small grapes forming. Do I need to do anything to encourage good size
grapes, e.g. feeding or pruning back the foilage?

TIA

Paul.

On Sun, 15 Jun 2003 08:47:19 +0100, Paul Taylor
wrote:

I have a grape vine which for the first time in three years has plenty of
small grapes forming. Do I need to do anything to encourage good size
grapes, e.g. feeding or pruning back the foilage?

Keep the birds away from them!
--
martin

In article , Paul Taylor
writes
I have a grape vine which for the first time in three years has plenty of
small grapes forming. Do I need to do anything to encourage good size
grapes, e.g. feeding or pruning back the foilage?

Keep the soil moist, but not waterlogged - erratic watering will lead to
split grapes; no plant nutrients should be necessary if the vine has
access to healthy soil - i.e. not growing in a pot; if the vine is
outside, the fruit will take much longer to ripen; if it is inside you
should be summer pruning new stems - cut them back to two fruit buds
which will bear next year's grapes (they will need to be pruned again in
late autumn); if any of the bunches forming up have poor looking or ill
formed grapes amongst them you can pick those out to encourage the rest
of the bunch to grow larger; the longer you can leave bunches on, the
sweeter the grapes will be, but take off any which are developing fluffy
grey mould - a grey haze on the grapes is often seen but that is not a
disease and it can be removed before eating.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

On Sun, 15 Jun 2003 14:30:49 +0100, Alan Gould wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

Regards,

PT

Paul Taylor wrote in message ...
I have a grape vine which for the first time in three years has plenty
of
small grapes forming. Do I need to do anything to encourage good size
grapes, e.g. feeding or pruning back the foilage?

TIA

Paul.

You need to prune out about half of the little grapes. When my parents
had a vine they used long fine scissors and pruned the grapes until
those left were not touching, then if any do develop mould they will not
infect other grapes. You may have to prune more than once. It is a time
consuming job.

Mike
www.british-naturism.org.uk