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jklawson_gw

vines, no grapes

jklawson
11 years ago

Each year my grape vines grow like crazy--10 feet long or more--but i get very few grapes. I prune each fall and use copper bordeaux powder and Sevin when the vines are growing. Anyone know why I get almost no fruit? These vines are about 7 years old.

Thanks.

Comments (4)

  • fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
    11 years ago

    Are you pruning off all of last years wood? Grapes bear only on wood that grew last year. If you prune all that off you will get nothing except abundant growth. In zone 5 I'd prune in spring just before growth begins.

    If pruning is the issue you can get help here just ask.

  • glenn_10 zone 4b/5a NewBrunswick,Can.
    11 years ago

    what variety are you growing?If it is a more tender variety you may be losing fruit buds to cold winter temps.I have a himrod grape which I have layed down last winter and I finally got some grapes on it this year,other wise the previous years it would put out some weak looking fruit buds then they would shrivel up and just grow canes.But I could be wrong and it may be total coincidence,someone else may have some better input.

  • spartan-apple
    11 years ago

    It sounds most likely a pruning issue. But first I am assuming the variety you are growing is winter hardy for your area? Are you getting a lot of flowers?

    I once grew grapes here in SE WI 31 years ago. Lots of tip die back and little to no fruit. Upon contacting the
    fruit specialist at UW-Madison, I found the variety I chose
    was not fully winter hardy for our area. Funny, now with
    global warming/climate change, that same variety is now
    recommended by UW-Madison for my area as it did well in some trials they did the last 3 years.

    Another weird possibility is genetics. I mention this as
    I purchased 3 concord grapevines bare-root a few years ago
    from a New York source. All three planted on same trellis
    in a row. One produces normal sized bunches of fruit, one
    produces gigantic bunches of fruit with extremely large size to each berry. The 3rd vine grows well but hardly produces anything. The bunches consist of 3-5 berries each. They are all pruned and cared for the same. I can
    only conclude the inferior Concord vine is a genetic issue.
    I think it is time to root out some hardwood cuttings of the vine with the exceptional yield/fruit size.

    My grapes are trained/pruned using the 4 arm kniffen system. The University of Minnesota has a great easy to read article on this online if you are interested.

  • fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
    11 years ago

    jk:

    If you are removing all of last seasons growth when you prune, leave about four canes of 10 or more nodes next time you prune. If that yields fruit then just repeat each year and problem solved.

    If you are leaving some of last seasons wood without fruit then we need feedback to be of more help.

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