Forum home› Fruit & veg
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Grape vine

mark.deanmark.dean Posts: 7
in Fruit & veg
I have 3 year old grapevine and every ear I get about 6 bunches of miniature grapes , all looking good then each bunch drops 90% of its grapes, I got 11 grapes this year ! Anyone know why ps is in a greenhouse shaded and big pot of good compost, it grows well.
«1

Posts

  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 782
    edited July 2021
    Maybe just the roots being restricted in a container might make it limit the amount of fruit it carries to maturity. Have one here for a good number of years and it has got fairly big particularly in summer and I imagine the roots go very deep into the soil at the edge of the polytunnel where I have it planted.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    A photo would help if possible. Do you know which variety you have? It would have been better not let it fruit at all for the first 3 years but you can't do anything about that now. Is it getting enough water and nutrients? You mention it is in good compost but the original nutrients would have been exhausted within a few months of planting.
  • mark.deanmark.dean Posts: 7
    Hi guys thanks for the reply’s I fed it blood fish and bone meal early in spring, I cannot remember variety but it was expensive from online vine experts. Here is a picture, exactly the same thing happened last year. 
  • mark.deanmark.dean Posts: 7

  • mark.deanmark.dean Posts: 7

    Yes it’s getting enough water too , I might have to change compost and see , but it happened last year when compost was new. I thought too much sun maybe so introduced semi shading. Cannot work out why it drops so many grapes in June? Up until then it was text book grapevine! 
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    It could be a problem with pollination of the flowers. You can help by hand pollinating as suggested here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=287

  • mark.deanmark.dean Posts: 7
    Yes I was thinking that last year, do you still have to hand pollinate a self pollinating grapevine? It’s too late now but for sure I will try this next year… many thanks 
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Yes, self-fertile plant flowers still need the pollen transferring from anther to the stigma.  Outdoors, the wind jiggling the flowers is usually enough, but in the still air of a greenhouse, some manual help may be needed.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • mark.deanmark.dean Posts: 7
    Thanks Bob good advice from all you gardeners, cannot wait for next year to try put right what I’ve been doing wrong. 

  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Vines don't like to be in pots.
    Ours in the greenhouse are planted in the ground and do very well.
    The outside ones well they are planted outside.
    We get good crops from both apart from the greenhouse one last year for the first time in decades. Too much mould and drop so this year we have been very careful about summer pruing inside and out.
    Both areas are showing good grape growth.
Sign In or Register to comment.