Grapes grow fast and huge. Then you cut almost all of it off when the plant is dormant.

I think they are easier to manage on wire trellis, but you can grow them up anything. You can also use the "sprawl" method and just let them grow on the ground.

I don't know what they will do in your zone, but here they wake up late and I know several people who yanked theirs out because they thought they were dead, but it was just too early for them to wake up.

You can grow it up the pole this year or it could sprawl on the ground. Next year is when you will need a trellis. Having said that I'm going for a small crop next year on my newly planted grapes. But they have already grown nearly up to the trellis wire at 8ft. These are in my greenhouse. Outside newly planted have about 2ft growth and a small crop next year is questionable.

Growth and early cropping are highly variable and dependent on growing conditions. I'd be concerned that yours might be dead. Is the bark still green?

Don't give up on it yet... my vines still have no growth yet - the buds are just starting to swell. You can scrape the bark or cut the tip of the "stick" and look for green tissue if you want to see if it is still alive.

As for trellis, they are not 100% necessary. The vine will likely yield more fruit and be easier maintain with a trellis, but you can be successful with just the pole you are using. Many vineyards (such as old vine Zinfandel) are still grown without a trellis. I think if I were growing just a single vine, I wouldn't bother with a trellis. Google "head pruning" and also search youtube for "head pruning", there is a lot of info available.

Went back to Walmart, found concord seedless grape vines at a different location. Also found "The Ultomato" scaffold, for supporting tomatoes or "most vine grown plants". They're sets of 3 5' stakes with adjustable crossbars that you make into a triangle style cage around your plant.

Got a couple of them, figure I'll let the grapes grow up them until they look ready for more, then I can just string some wire between the two and let them go at it.

And no, the stalks are not green. They're brown and woody with bark. Maybe... third of an inch in diameter. Just looking at it, I would have said it was dead, but all of the vine fruit there was like this. I'm hoping they're just still essentially hybernating. They're bone dry, and the instructions say to soak them thoroughly, so again I'm hoping that'll make them come to.

One important thing to do for grape vines is to protect the leader from hot sun the first year or two. Some say to paint it, but I just wrapped a tarp around loosely the first year. Wasn't sure if it would grow - as I planted 3 others that were struggling.

They begin to look kind of "ratty" after they produce - and may not put out fruit for awhile, but after severe pruning in fall/winter, they put out lots of new growth when warm weather sets in. I usually don't prune out all old growth, mainly because I waited to see which canes would pop out new growth, if some didn't then I finished the job.

I had a few Thompson's last year - the Japanese beetles got most of them, so need to find another pest solution for them.

Another 2 vines - Cabernet wine grape, is being trained to grow on a trellis - I hope. It is next to the south side of the house - lots of sun, now in its 2nd summer. Growth looks good, and if I live long enough, perhaps I'll make some wine.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Here's the two grape vines I've got planted.

{{gwi:79601}}
Thats the first one I bought, a white seedless.

{{gwi:79602}}
Thats the one I just bought today, a concord seedless.

As you can see, they're woody with bark, but no green at all.

Edy:

The outer bark on older wood of grapes always looks like that, dead or alive. What is important is the inner bark. Take a knife and make a shallow cut into the stem. If it's dead everything will be brown. But if you find green under the brown, you are good to go.

Nah, I'll wait and be surprised instead of slicing them up. I actually don't have any real worries, the plants I get from walmart have proven to be healthier and hardier than what I get from local nurseries, and I have no reason to expect these to be any different.

I have a vine that is now 6 years old. It was planted about the same size as yours, I believe it is a Thomson Seedless. I did not get any grapes for the first two years but on the third year it produced a huge amount of grapes and they tasted awesome. On the fourth year it was an out of control bush but again made a large amount of grapes.

Last year I decided to build a pergola to tame them a little so I cut it back to about 14" (a little bit too much). Over the summer it covered it completely as I used planting tape to guide it over the structure but I had no grapes. A month ago it looked bad with knarely dead vines all around it but in the last few weeks I have new growth popping out all around it and leafing out. I have many clusters ready to turn into new grapes.

{{gwi:79603}}

I need to take new pics in a few weeks when the grapes are growing.

I also have a Flame Seedless that I planted last year and got a few grapes from it but it was a little bigger in a #5 pot. It has a bunch of clusters now too. Just be patient and don�t rip it out if you don�t get grapes in the first year or two.

Hi,

I bought a concord from the local nursery, it has lots of small fruit bunches on them. I have repotted it in a 10 gallon smart pot.

is it okay to prune some of the branches off? I've read only to prune when it's dormant but one has to do 'control' pruning???

do you feed it citrus food once a month? also read it grows better in poor soil vs. rich fertile ones.

I'm using EB stone Edna's Organic potting soil, that has earth compost,bat guano so I'm sure it's pretty rich.

excellent advise. Thank you.

remove the fruit even though it's a 3 year old vine?

if the fruit does not increase in size in say a few weeks,
then the vine is not ready to for fruit?

The rule of thumb is that it takes about 10 (full size) leaves on the same shoot above a cluster to ripen it. Usually when a vine is transplanted, the growth is stunted. Commercial growers usually refer to transplanted vines as first year vines (regardless of the age of the plant) and often wait until year 3 or 4 to take a crop.

In my opinion that's a bit extreme for the "backyard" home grower. Home growers are usually willing to sacrifice a little yield in year 3 for a taste in year 2. In year 1, if you must have a taste, it's probably best to leave no more than 1 cluster (which may not even ripen). Keep in mind this is all advise I'm giving having not seen your vine at all. A large vine, with a huge root ball carefully transplanted, may be ready to bear a small crop immediately... but that's not normally the case.

So, just how long should it take for a dormant vine to wake up once its been planted?

I'm coming up on a week since planting, and they're pretty much looking the same as the day I put them in the ground.

Going to give them at least 2 full weeks before I start getting really antsy, but I was hoping to at least see some amount of new growth starting by now.

MY grapes are ok, growing, nice to look and big producers but the grapes themseves seem a little small and a bunch can be ripe at the top and have little green bebes at the bottom. Type -Ruby Red Table grapes almost 6yrs old. Watered well and fertilize so I can't figure out the problem. I had Thompsons before and they were great no issues. Some gardner on TV said you can snip the tips of the bunches to create larger bunches, anyone know????
Thanks

Edy:

That's why you scrape the bark to tell. If you find green under the brown, you are still in business. If it is brown below then you might have problems. But grapes are amazing for pushing up buds even from nodes below ground when the upper nodes are dead. You really can't tell about grapes until they are 2-3 months past normal start date. So if they aren't going by the 4th of July, depending on where you live, they are likely toast.

Yeah, I just sliced into them both (and myself while I was at it), and I don't see anything in there that I would consider the color green. Shaved the top of the white seedless where it wouldn't do any damage, nothing. Moved down to the base of the trunk, and again nothing. Cut into the top of the concord, brown.

So yeah, pretty sure these are both deader than Gilbert Godfrey's career right now. Guess I have no choice but to dig 'em up and go get some from a nursery (at 3x the price) that I know at least have leaves on them.

Saw the same grapes on sale at walmart... I purchased them the beginning of February, they looked like dried up pieces of wood, but for the price it was worth a shot (they rang up for $2.50 each).. Planted both according to directions... Finally last week the concord seedless put out a leaf, it has not grown in size but I now have six small leaves... Still waiting on the thompson seedless..

Yeah, I dug mine up. In their place I erected two sections of split rail cedar fencing and planted the vine I really wanted right in the middle, a venus.

Read that it can grow upwards of 20' in a season, the fence overall is about 25' long, and I'm keeping a two trunk vine that I plan to train across the rails in both directions.

Been reading up on how to prune them, and so far I agree with the "let it grow however it wants the first year" so it gets a nice big root system, then start pruning it back to the main canes you want during the winter.

I do have one question about this, although it won't be an issue for quite some time. I've read that if you let the vines touch the ground that they'll root themselves there (and that basically thats what you do when you make cuttings). Everything I've seen says to prevent this.

Why?

I've also seen where people say the best grapes will come from closest to the main trunk, presumably because thats the main source of water and nutrients to the plant.

So why would you not want (after growing the vine large enough) to let the tips dip back down at the end to make an archway out of it? Give it trunks in the middle and each end to maximize roots and water and whatnot?