Carying for Grape vines in spring

Now is the time to prepare your grape vines tp produce the best crop later in the year.

As your vines break from their winter rest you will see the leaves begin to grow from the buds on the stems of the vine.

As the buds develop you will begin to see the fruit cluster buds begin to form.

You will typicaly get two flower clusters per developing stem.

The buds will continue to develop into tiny flower clusters

.The flowers clusters will open and you can then see the pistal and stamin parts of the open flower. This is the time that pollination occures to produce the grapes later in the year.

Once the flower are polinated the fruits will begin to develop. They take on the aperance of tiny grapes.

Now is the time to protect the developing fruit from insects. For the home grower a good way to do this is to cover the fruit with nylon mesh bags.

Secure the bags over the fruit and lightly cinch the bag ties to the stem of the fruit cluster.

You can trim the developing stem that is growing beyond the last grape cluster by pinching out the groth tip. This will help control the growth of the vine.

The fruit will develop in the bag protected until the fruit is ready to harvest.