They need LOTS of sun, and it needs to be sprayed in June for the grape rust. If you see spots of brown on the leaves, that's the rust. If you get this rust, you won't get many grapes, most will shrivel up and rot, and the birds will get the rest. It also needs a very HEAVY frame for support. Love those grapes!!! :0 arum

CodyM: I do not grow the grape varieties you mention but I am familiar with them. I grow Concord and Canadice in SE WI. I have grown Edelweiss, Himrod seedless and others in the past. If your vines are young and not bearing fruit, I would not spray them. Once they are bearing, then I spray mine with Captan fungicide in spring to prevent back rot. Usually I spray them when the buds are just bursting and again weekly until the fruit is formed and sizes up so noticeable. Since I spray my apples all season, I still hit the grapes as well. I got hammered last August as we had a freak 3rd generation of grape berry moth and ended up loosing 1/3 of my crop to it. Normally I do not spray my grapes after August 15th. When to stop however depends on when the variety is going to ripen. Some of my seedless grapes ripen in August so I stop spraying in late July on those varieties. Last year a friend lost a lot of his crop to downy mildew in August. I had none on mine luckily. His fruit was just covered in white mildew. I spray fungicide in spring for black rot prevention. I spray fungicide later in season for mildew control. For insects the only issue I have had is grape berry moth so I do use an insecticide during the growing season as we normally can get 2 generations of berry moth in my area. The big issue on the fungal problems is that you need to spray to prevent the disease once you have fruit. Spraying a fungicide after you have black rot or mildew on the fruit will do no good. If your area has low humidity then fungal issues may not be a big problem for you.

Hi all, So I am going into my 2nd year and need help on pruning my grapes. They will be trained to a Geneva double curtain (2 trunks) while also growing out 2 renewal canes for possible future winter damage. I am predominantly getting my info from: http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/publications/growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf and http://migarden.msu.edu/uploads/files/e2774.pdf I know you should do dormant pruning but winter was so rough this year I wanted to wait to see what survived before cutting back. Pretty much all canes survived so now I have way to many buds sending out shoots and a veritable bush at the base. I have 2 main types right now depending on their vigor from last year. 1) Plants with 1-2 long trunks nearly reaching top wire that currently have 1-2 inch shoots from base to tip. What do I do? Do I leave all shoots for now, then at flowering remove all the shoots and leaves from lower on the trunk and only keep 1 shoot at the top of each to train up into a cordon along the top wire? Since it has not quite made it to the top wire should I cut it back to the bottom 3-4 shoots and start new this year? I will also leave 2 trunk renewal canes from the base. 2) Bushy plants with multiple short canes that have 5-7 buds/shoots on each. Should I cut back to 3 shoots on each short cane, wait a bit to see which grow the most and then remove everything except the 2 shoots that are growing fastest? Thanks.

The two branches are cordons from which new shoots will form. You could train the cordons across a wire and let them produce new canes. Each cane will produce more canes. Grape clusters don't grow on old wood. So this year, when the vine goes dormant, look for strong new canes, Choose 2-4 good ones. Get rid of the rest. The good canes should have many buds. Starting at the base, count 5-8 buds and prune off the rest. Within each dormant bud resides one cluster and a new cane. This process repeats over and over as the years pass. If your vine is becoming a monster, there is no reason that you can't summer prune. Just make sure you leave enough on each cane so you will have fruit next year. Go to you tube. Lots of videos. Search Pruning Concord Grapevines.