You need a trellis to support the plant. Otherwise it will lean or fall flat one way or another. Looks like there's a stake but it wasn't used. Put in something T shaped and run one cane or another up that and loosely tie cane to trellis. Save a single cane running each direction each winter when you prune. That will produce all the grapes needed.

Hi Fruitnut,

I will be installing a T shaped trellis this coming spring. What I think you see as a stake towards the left, is part of my dad's temporary greenhouse he made for his guava seedlings and Moringa. This year, I kept the vines up with plum branches.. So, since you say run one cane or another up the T, does that mean I can keep both of these canes as permanent trunks? This will not result in inferior fruit production or be too overcrowded?

Keep just one trunk. Make the trellis strong enough to hold up 40 lbs of fruit. Run one of last yrs canes in each direction off the trunk. That will result in 20-40 canes bearing fruit each summer. I thin to one bunch per cane or trim the bunches if too long.

Take a look at this ....

Here is a link that might be useful: grow & train grape vines

I can't imagining harvesting 40 lbs of grapes off a single plant..I didn't know they can be that fruitful. Thanks for your suggestions, I will cut the trunk on the left off, and build a trellis to support the larger one on the right. Thanks for the useful link Jean. Here is an up-close picture and a picture of the younger fruit earlier this year.

Perlette Fruit on June 29th

You now have your main trunk selected. Keep in mind this upcoming year will be to decide on a cordon system and train the cordons (arms). Third year and beyond with cordon established dormant pruning will be of most importance.

Perlette is already a smaller grape. The link below is a way to help increase size. Rule of thumb is maintaining ten bunches per cordon arm. Your area is really good for grape growing. So you can likely cheat with more as the years pass.

Here is a link that might be useful: Improving Size and Quality of Seedless Grapes

Like suggested by NMSU, I tip the clusters. Take about a 1/3 of cluster length off after berry set. This improves the remaining berries and allows one to keep more clusters.

Thanks for the great Link Fascist_Nation. I never though to trim off some of the grapes, I find them incredibly ornamental how they dangle. Interesting about the usage of "Gibberellin," to increase berry sizes. I never knew there was such a strange practice.

Fruitnut, I have a flame grape that I am going to plant next year, and now I am looking for a black grape (well, if I can make room for it). I am thinking Autumn Royal because of its late harvest so that I'll have grapes throughout the year. I've had black grapes recently which tastes very sweet, with a clear flavor reminiscent of Lychee- can't be sure but it seems to look most like autumn royal; very dark and somewhat elongated. What do you think of Autumn Royal?

Thanks for everyone's help.

Fascist_Nation, I do live in wine country. I recently attended a Grape Festival a couple of months ago in Lodi, and that's what resparked my interest in adding some grapes to my backyard.

dan8:

Autumn Royal has very big berries, biggest of any seedless, in a moderately tight, large cluster. But flavor is mediocre.

My favorites are Flame, Summer Royal, Princess, and Crimson. Summer Royal has been best over 10 yrs but last yr Princess was probably best. Flame is very crisp and sweet. Crimson lasts until Dec.

The best tasting grape I've grown by far is Summer Muscat, incredible flavor. But berries are small and they crack. Still it was bred for your area and is worth a try. It's on the early side.

Fruitnut,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm glad that Flame is one of your favorites considering that I already have it, ready to be planted. I will keep an eye out for Summer Muscat when I go to the nursery this spring since you say its by far your best. My Perlette grape fruits got a lot of attention from guests, so I'm hoping to find grapes that will hang off the vines as long as possible.

The best grapes I've tasted was Labeled as Scarlet Royal, I purchased at Safeway. The fruit were dark red, sweet, VERY firm and crunchy. The family noticed a difference in how these grapes were spectacularly different and delicious. Unfortunately, it looks like there aren't any vendors selling the plants online as of yet though, so i guess they are unavailable for home gardens.

There are a number of releases from USDA Fresno that I'd like to try. It does seem to take a long time for the nurseries to pick them up. Summer Muscat is available from Bay Laurel Nursery. They still haven't picked up Summer Royal. It ripens after Flame and is a very nice grape.

Hi everyone, how does my trellis look? Should I make any changes? I'm training my plant to be Cane Pruned as that is what's recommended for Perlette. I left that middle cane pointing up because I plan on training canes for next years fruiting cane up higher on that top tier. This will be it's third year.

Perlette table grape here.

There are multiple side shoots growing off of each cane. They are very vigorous, and I'm wondering if I should cut these off from each fruiting cane. Unsure if they are helpful or hurtful to the size of the grapes. Each fruiting cane is about 4 feet long.

There are also some squiggly marks on some of the canes I've never seen before, is this some kind of disease?

Thanks Fascist_Nation. Luckily I have not seen anything that comes close to skeletonizers yet.

I will be Cane Pruning, as recommended by the grower Dave Wilson Nursery. I've got the canes for next year selected out already.

Yea, I did prune some leaves out of the way so that sunlight can better ripen the grapes. This NE facing wall already doesn't get much sunlight. I was planning on letting the plant just do its thing, but it is just so darn vigorous that I was unsure. Seems wasteful that I'll be cutting off all that growth next season.