Grape Vine

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Corie Henson, Aug 11, 2015.

  1. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    We bought a grave vine in a soft plastic bag. After planting in the backyard, we planned on erecting a trellis so the vines can climb. However, when we computed for the cost, it seemed not practical to have a steel trellis. What if the grape wouldn't bear fruit? So now the grape vine is growing fine and has some small branches that are starting to crawl so we will just install a trellis made of bamboo, that's much cheaper.

    Do you have any recommendation or advice on the proper caring of a grape vine? Take note that grapes are not common here albeit a novelty particularly the seedless variety.
     
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  2. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I don't have any knowledge on the subject, but my grandmother had a lovely structure in her backyard that we called The Grapevine. The grapes were there for ages, since my mom was a child, and although they had seeds, they were small seeds, and the grapes were tasty, but a bit tart. No one picked them much, and apparently as they aged, the birds would eat them and become intoxicated. There are lots of pictures online, and since I don't have a pic of my grandmother's grape vine handy, this is the closest one I could find.
     

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  3. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    @Diane Lane, I am amused and curious with that intoxication of the birds. You are giving me the impression that those grapes have turned into wine, hahahaaa. When my husband went to the US, he had visited an uncle who had a grapevine in the backyard. The vine was heavily fruiting with the green variety that is seedless. Unfortunately, the grapes were still young and not ready for picking. His uncle said that it will take a month before the harvest time - that was in LA and my husband left for the bay area the following week.

    Now with our grape vine, the vendor insisted that it is the seedless variety but do not believe him. The seedless grape is unheard of in this country although we have lots of the fruits in the groceries and supermarkets.
     
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  4. Joyce Mcgregor

    Joyce Mcgregor Veteran Member
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    We had an old cloths line in our backyard that was made with the metel T on each end and strung with wire. When we got an electric cloths dryer, my mom no longer hung the laundry on it so she planted a grape vine on each end. The vines thrived and produced the red seedless variety. They were really tasty and I do not remember my mom doing anything to care for the vines other then prune them occasionally. She used the young leaves to make dolmas, a Greek dish that wrapped a meat filling in the grape leaves similiar to stuffed cabbage leaves. They were really good and we looked forward to having them with sour cream every year.
     
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  5. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Yes, I don't know about wine making, but the birds would apparently become intoxicated from eating the grapes that had been left on the vine.

    As children, we used to take amusement in peeling the grapes and telling one another they were eye balls :eek:
     
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  6. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    @Diane Lane, I can imagine when you were kids, playing with grapes before eating. Over here, don't you know that grapes used to be priced higher than gold? Imported fruits like apples abound during the Christmas season. I would see them in carts (carrying about a thousand apples) in the city streets. Chestnuts were also in the scene when you go to the city. But grapes, that is the rarest thing at the time. I could only see grapes when we go to the house of my father's boss who is very rich. There on the table was a bunch of grapes resting on the plate. And grapes were not seedless then.

    In 1986, when my husband worked in London for 4 months, he came home with about 5 kilos of grapes, different variety and all seedless. At the time, seedless grapes can only be seen in magazines.
     
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  7. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    My mom had a chain link fence that she trained the grape vines to grow on, they did well on the fence.
     
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  8. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    @Pat Baker we are thinking of installing a mesh wire or cyclone wire for our grape vine to cling on. This morning we cleaned the surrounding and installed 2 bamboo poles for the post but we didn't complete it because the posts may not stand firmly. So now we are considering to buy iron bars for that purpose. My husband said that grape he bought is now giving him a problem, hahahaaa. From what the attendant in the nursery store said, the vine is a seedless grape and it will bear fruit in one year. But I don't believe it for now.
     
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  9. Brittany Houser

    Brittany Houser Veteran Member
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    Diane, we used to do the same thing when we were kids! My Grandma's neighbor had a concord grape vineyard, and the concords made the BEST "eyeballs!" :D Also old old grapevines were great for swinging on! We would swing across ravines on them. It's a wonder my cousins and I survived childhood!:D
     
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  10. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Haha @Brittany Houser I'm picturing y'all swinging through the jungle, like Tarzan. @Corie Henson It's so funny how something can be rare in one place, and pretty common in another. I'm sure grapes weren't as prevalent back in the times of our parents as they are now, which was probably why my Grandmother had the vines. No doubt fruit was scarce, and expensive, so I'm sure many more people grew their own produce than do now, although it seems to be swinging back in that direction.
     
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  11. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    @Diane Lane, one thing that amuses me about a place is the fruit. When I first went abroad for a tour in Hongkong, I was really sad because we did find seedless grapes in one grocery but not that fresh anymore so we bought some for eating and not for bringing home. But I was also glad when we saw fresh cherries. That's the first time I have seen those small red fruits with small pit and a long stem that I used to see only in pictures.

    In the recent years when we went to Bangkok, there was a yellow plum that I forgot the name. It was sweet and tasted like a mix of plum and apricot. I think we had eaten more than 2 kilos of that fruit. And not to forget that Thailand has those sweet tamarind and exotic durian.
     
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  12. Carlota Clemens

    Carlota Clemens Veteran Member
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    While I like how the vines of grapevine spreads through a garden, I can't help to say that I prefer grapevines converted into a bottle of wine, which are easier to care for until they are gone with the wind in a drinking afternoon :D
     
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  13. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    Since I was so busy with work in the past 2 weeks, I am really quite surprised this morning when I saw the grave with 3 separate vines looking for something to crawl on. Gee, it's been a while since we had planned to buy a mesh for a trellis and until now it remains a plan. I hope we will have time this afternoon to go to the hardware for that, to give the grapevine a home of its own.

    Incidentally, I brought a kilo of grapes yesterday to the office and shared it with my colleagues. Since I used to bring fruits whenever would have a good harvest - mangoes, dragon fruit, sugar apple, cashew, etc - one colleague remarked that our grapevine is truly fruitful and green grapes at that and seedless too. That got me thinking, grape is a rarity here and when our grapes would bear fruit, I'm sure it will be interesting to everyone.
     
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  14. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I hope y'all will be able to get the mesh or other type of trellis soon. It'd be fun to document the process here, so we can all enjoy it @Corie Henson
     
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  15. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    I had been to several hardware store but I didn't find that mesh I was looking for. Gee, the grape vine now has grown 3 long vines that seem to be looking for a trellis to climb on. But it had to wait until we find that mesh because that is the best trellis for that grapevine that is planted in a small planter box. We are not giving it any fertilzer for now so it will not grow fast but it is growing fast maybe because of the rains.

    @Diane Lane, we can buy a kilo of seedless grapes of the best quality in the grocery. But my husband had bought this grape vine just for the novelty of it. That's also why we have dragon fruit which is fruiting right now and being admired by friends. How about the miracle fruit that we have, well, I guess that's another story.
     
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