Grapes

The grapes in our Wintergarten are coming along nicely and we'll have a good crop again this year.

 

There lovely, wish I had the space in my garden for grapes but it's a jungle literally!!

 

Very nice kedi, I grew a muscat of alexandria for quite a few years under glass.
What variety are yours?

 

:eek: Sis ... they are well on their way. Our Red Cardinal we planted this Spring is going great guns but nowhere like yours ... but ours is new. Saying that, the ones in general are nowhere that developed, ours ripen in the late summer/autumn.

 

Thanks TO, Pete and Sis.

No idea what ours are Pete - we bought a white grape and it turned out blue! Sugar-sweet BTW. I have a white one now planted outside but don't expect it to grow and fruit like this ones does.

Perhaps we have an early sort Sis and being in the WG also helps. Ours are ripe in August/September, so earlier than yours.

 

I guess the difference is that our fruit later and ripen earlier, due to our sun and heat, if that makes sense?

 

Sounds like an early one Kedi, mine didn't ripen till oct or nov, and by then it was getting a bit cold and damp, so ripening was a bit hit and miss.

 

Whatever it is, the grapes are excellent to eat straight off the vine. I make grape jelly every year, made a batch with lime juice last year too, very tasty. I've made grape liquer now and then, quiet good but we prefer the elderberry liquer that I make in September/October. We often have so many that the neighbours have to help out.

 

That vine looke beautiful KG but of course so does the rest of your garden. Your picture reminds me of travelling along the Moselle when I was little, and all the beautiful vines shading the courtyards of the small inns etc that we stayed in....
:( I am beginning to think I will have to add grapes to the list of things I can't grow- I have 2 vines, bothi n good sized pots, one is about 6 years old and only about 3ft high, the other I bought last year and very little growth at all. I have read in loads of places that vines do OK in containers, I wish mine could read. :(

 

Thank you Liz. As said, ours (just one vine) is growing in our Wintergarten but in the ground.

We have loose paving stones in the WG so we could change the arrangement should we ever want to, but haven't since we had it built in 1988. We have 2 beds and the vine is in the one on the former outside wall of the house, now in the WG.

Now, this might be a tip but I'm not sure. We dug the whole area out ready for the WG and filled it with sand. We went overboard and dug it out to a depth of 1 meter and so there is that much sand under the flooring. We removed some of the sand and put a mix of soil and peat moss in the to-be beds. This is what our vine lives in. So perhaps if you repotted yours with a mix of soil, peat moss and sand you might have better luck.

 

A couple more pics in our Wintergarten with the grapes -

 

Just to say Kedi your grapes look really good, you have the space and height for them.
I always ended up with the leaves touching the glass and burning.Is that a fig in the foreground in the last pic?

Liz, I have a vine in a container, I dont get many grapes off of it as I tend not to look after it as I should. The variety is seigriebbe, (something like that, spelling probably wrong)it has redish grapes with a muscat type flavour,
Its really suited to container growth as it is very non vigourous even when grow in the open ground, feeding as if they were tomatos is a good idea when in pots, I reckon.

 

Thanks Pete. We do have the problem you had with the grape leaves touching the glass and then we get water dripping all over the place from the condensation. Hubby trims them back when they get too thick and on the glass.

Yes, that is a fig in the foreground and it does bear fruit, unfortunately not the nice big plump ones you find in the supermarkets or in Turkey. It has to be cut back every year or it'd push the roof off of the WG and it is even worse than the grape for producing condensation. If I thought that Hubby could get all of the root out, I'd say let's put it outside in a protected spot (not that we have any left!). He tried it with the other fig a couple of years ago and the root broke. We have a third one, in a pot and belonging to our son .........

Today we saw a fig in a walled garden downtown and just choc-full of fruit. Also several banana plants and in the ground so they obviously stay outside all year round. Still, as said, a walled garden and sunny.

 

Know the problem, most of my micro climates are taken now and I have loads of things I'd like to try.

 

hi Kedi, lovely pics of your grapes makes my grape vine look quite humble. I will put some pics for you. its only a small vine with a few bunches of grapes for the first time. all my 5 grape vines grow outside.

Fancy