A guide to choosing Grape vines

Please find below some information that you may find helpful in selecting and buying grape vines:

Growing habit and training. Grape vines are vigorous climbing plants which support themselves on a support structure with their strong tendrils. You therefore need to provide a support structure which may be posts and wires as you would see in a vineyard, wires on a wall or an arch. Vines must be pruned every year. They produce an enormous amount of new growth every summer which would quickly turn into a tangled mass if not kept in check. There are many systems of pruning but at the heart of all of them is the simple fact that the fruit is produced on the new stems. So every winter the new shoots produced the previous winter are cut back leaving the woody trunk with just one or a few short lengths of young growth from which the following year’s new growth will start. In addition during the growing season it is often necessary to thin out the new shoots to prevent overcrowding and overcropping.

Pollination. All grape vines are self-fertile and individual varieties can be grown on their own.