Growing Grapes in Containers - Proof of Concept

i think it might be possible to grows them outside i have done in denmark wich hase a very simular climet meyby a litle less windy but still just let it grow its pritty big now and gives a fear few grapes

If you want to grow grape in a pot you should prune it like a little tree with 3 or 4 branches. Fruits grow from a one year branch. Your plants seem to have huge leaves.

My father used to grow the Black Homburg variety in greenhouse in northern England with a similar climate to Ireland.
It was rooted into the ground, but with the roots trained outside the greenhouse so inside bed space could be used for other crops, and the leafy growth was trained inside along wires hanging from the roof.
He obtained prolific crops which he used for wine making.
He spent a lot of time thinning individual bunches of grapes, using long, narrow scissors to clip out individual grapes from each bunch - around one in three grapes were removed, I think - to allow the remainder to swell but also to reduce the risk of rot and fungal problems. Pruning back leaf growth was a constant task, too.
Ventilation was important, also to reduce rot. Because of the root run being external he could simply turn a tap on a water butt or hose to irrigate just the grape, and water run off from the roof of the greenhouse also fed the grape roots directly.
The vine thrived for several decades (until my dad grew too old to properly care for it) and the wine was always good and plentiful! However, it was very labour intensive.

I share your pain when the blackbirds have eaten all the grapes when you weren't watching, I'm thinking to build a scarecrow to dissuade them here. Cheers from a South Australian Spring!

incredible!

Excellent video as always!

The numerous year-old propagated cuttings might be a novel item to share with anyone ambitious enough to try growing them. More people growing that variety of grapes for more data, so long as they know what they're getting into.

I've propagated tons of grapes, I would have put those cuttings about 80 percent buried in the medium in a much deeper pot. They're easy to start, I just leave mine outside all winter in our Oregon climate, similar to yours. I'm afraid yours will dry out with so much exposed.

I will personally plant them in potatoe buckets (30 l one's) and try using water with bicarbonate soda and few drops of oil against fungal disease. Good luck and thank you for an inspiration.

Himrod looked good. until you cut those beautiful bunches in half.

I have definitely not been doing the right things. I do little to my poly tunnel grapes and get quite a few grapes. I think that I need to feed them but have had small size grapes, I now have quite a lot of grape jelly. I harvest in September. My property is a bit farther North than the Red Gardens.
Birdy

Will be giving this a try.

yep thanks will have a go at this ;)

Grape thinning is really important. I’m still learning but it stops the early rot and produces larger grapes

You can wrape the bunch of grape with a very cheap bag of special paper, you can found it on internet. Or just put some bags of insect net around the bunches. Here in Spain is a common way to solve the insect problem in grapevine, if you have a home garden. Liked the idea of pots, thanks so much!

Great video. One small note. I learned on a pruning course that it is best to always prune with the "sharp part" of your pruning shears towards the plant. That way you get a cleaner cut and there is less chance of fungus getting into the wound.

We plant roots outside polytunnel and train the vines inside . Saves alot of work and watering and the plants prefer it.

I only put my first one in this year so can't offer any advice, apart from the RHS is a good initial resource so try there. I put mine in the traditional way, with the roots outside and the vine inside. I'm hoping to train it along the roof of the PT on the North side so it doesn't shade the other plants in there.

This is really interesting; I've never considered grapes as a perennial fruit crop, not wanting to permanently dedicate bed space to them, but I may have to give it a go in pots, now. Thanks for expanding my horizons once again, Bruce!

I'm continental EU, so i can grow grape in soil, but do to various reason ( altitude/colder winters and testing a more heat loving variety) i grew as test one in a 75l container on the patio . I didn't prune that much like you (maybe should have), this year had around 15-20 clusters, but individual fruits were small, like a pea ( should watered more ? ) But the biggest problem , which is unrelated to being in pots : all were eaten by wasps :( Same with the earlier varieties in soil. Need next year to reduce somehow the number of wasps starting the spring, since summer/autumn trapping didn't help enough

Wonderful! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Thank you for sharing this information.

I hope this becomes a series, i would like to see all the challenges and how you overcome them. One thing is that according to expert growers, grape vines are often grafted because there is a pest that most varieties cannot withstand, i think thats one of the things you should look into if you are going to do cuttings and make your own new plants from branches.

Great video. Thanks very much 👍

Thank you very much for this 🍇 growing video. I'm from Scotland and trying to grow three 🍇 varieties outside without any knowledge and still unsuccessful. Bindu

interesting. I always assumed our climates were very similar, even tho I am on the other side of the 'BIG POND!' My neighbor, about 1/2 mile away has a vineyard for wine grapes. And not far away are other vineyards. (hour's drive, etc). Not to mention, there are plenty of dessert grape growers. For now, I am focusing on my next step on fruit such as some apple, pear, ad blueberry. It is, however, a dream(?) to consider grapes.

red gardens project video day! It's a good Day!

Just a heads up, grape cuttings dont need rooting hormone. They root very easily without it

Thanks for a very interesting video.
Hopefully, Bob Flowerdew and other experienced grape growers will get in touch after seeing your video.

I don't think taking cuttings like this will work for long enough. At least here in Austria we aren't even allowed to do that with Vitis vinifera, because the introduced Phylloxera and the false mildew will end them sooner or later. It seems that some might be crosses between the fox grape, Vitis labrusca, so that might work with some of them. I don't think only mainland Europe is infested by them tbh. Lovely video!!!!!!!!

The rot surprised me. The leaves were growing so much higher than the grapes, giving plenty of circulating air.

I grow with a small community of people in an old greenhouse, we have a grape vine that is around a decade old now and I have learned a couple things about grapes since I've been there that might help you:

1. It is normal for them to send out a looot of side shoots in the summer. this summer we had to prune ours multiple times to keep on top of it.

2. A very experienced grower in his 80's told me that ideally you want to thin out the bunches, ie take the weaker bunches off and take parts of the good bunches out too. (seems like you did something similar)

3. This year we also had problems with mould/grapes rotting. we think it was due to the weather but also a sprinkler we were using nearby to water other crops which happened to also be getting the grapes wet. that was mostly a mistake on our part as last year we had a lovely crop however I think it is a bit weather reliant and I think thinning the grapes probably helps with that!

I dont know about growing them in containers and how much to feed them as ours is in the ground and well established but this was a very interesting video and makes me want to give it a try myself.

I am shocked that we con grow grapes here...... they are ok

I ENJOY ALL YOUR VIDEOS -- Ray Delbury Sussex County NJ USA

I suspect that some of the issues you had may be related to the pot growing. I grow two of the varieties you have here in Dublin and have had no issues with them at all but they are planted in the ground.

There is also a few outdoor vineyards here in ireland that are producing theyre own wine! Wicklow Way Wines is one.

Hi, the brown spots on the leaves and the rotting grapes are caused by the same fungus, called black rot.
To reduce it's impact, you can try to increase air flow through the plant, and remove any affected grape or leaf as soon as they appear.
But in my experience it's impossible to get rid of it completely without fungicide (I live in south-western France and my grapes are climbing on a south facing wall and I still get black rot and both powdery and downy mildew).
The best "organic" way to control it is to spray with a copper fungicide, although it is no great for the soil as it accumulates over time.
I am now trying to grow some disease resistant varieties which are crossed with american grapes. I suggest you could add a few resistant ones to your collection for next year!

I don't know about Ireland, but here in France, all European (Vitis vinifera) grape varieties are sold grafted to an American grape rootstock. This is because European grapes are sensitive to phylloxera, which is a root aphid that destroyed all grapevines in France when it was imported from America.
So depending on if there is Phylloxera in your area, you might have a bad surprise with your cuttings. Hopefully, it is not around 🫰

Grapes are one of the most difficult things to grow. I live in Italy in an area which is essentially the heart of the wine region of the north west. Everywhere I go I see hills covered with vineyards, so I tried growing a couple of seedless grapes to make dried raisins for the winter and for cooking. However so far I had no luck growing them. I don’t want to apply any chemicals to my vegetable garden, not even what here everyone sprays which is a mixture of copper and sulfur, allowed also in organic farming. Each year I lost the crop to either fungal diseases or even worse parasites diseases. Eventually I gave up completely to the idea I had to grow grapes all above my tomato trellises to provide shade to the tomatoes over the hot summers we have been having over the past decade. I thought it was a perfect combination and instead for the first time this year I had fungal disease spread from the grapes to the tomatoes losing a handful of plants early in the season when we had more rain than usual. This fall I am removing the plants, which I have cut back to a stump after all those diseases appeared in June. I’m giving up on this experiment. Will need to find another vegetable to use as a climbing shade for the tomatoes. I may even try with pumpkins, who knows 😅 wish me luck!

Just want to say grape work Bruce! Not much to contribute to the discussion here, but want to keep the almighty algorithm happy ;)

Grapes contain powerful antioxidants, such as flavonoids and resveratrol, which help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals, potentially lowering the risk of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease.

If your varieties are seedless, you have to apply gibberiline during flower stage, so that a bigger stem will allow space on the stem for growth. A very crowded arrangement needs planned plant protection during early growth.

Grapes tend to have shallow surface roots and deep taproots im a winemaker and work with wine grapes, grapes are particularly vulnerable to potassium deficiency and you need to maintain adequate levels of potassium.