Growing grapes & blackberries

[sunflower]

This year was a terrible year for my grapes and blackberries. The weather was just way too dry. I know I need to prune them back and weed the beds (they have HUGE weeds which look like mini trees in the middle of them). But when is the best time to prune them back and how much do I take off? I don't want to damage them for next year.

While I'm here asking, should I mulch the beds as well?

 

[jessamom]

You are right; it was a horrible summer for berries. My parents have a huge blackberry patch. They mulch to keep the weeds at a minimum and it doesn't affect the health of their plant. I'd say now is a great time to prune. Cut away any dead branches to the ground. Cut the large canes(ones that have sprouted straight up from the ground) back to about 2-3 feet from the ground, which allows your bush to branch out. You can also prune the other branches back to two feet from their stalk. Hope that helps!

 

[sunflower]

Thanks! I really appreciate the information. I'll do all that as soon as possible. I have plans all this weekend, but fingers crossed I can get to it next weekend. I'd like to have them in better shape for next year and I can pay more attention to them and make sure they get plenty of water, despite the weather.

 

[Jessi]

Yep, now is the time. I don't know about the grapes, but for blackberries, as soon as they're done producing, it's fine to start clearing them out. Get rid of all of the dead ones that produced and remove them from the area entirely. We burn ours. Disease can spread off the old ones, so it's better to not leave the canes.

 

[jubbly]

I am in Northern England. I am not even sure if I could grow grapes here but I would love to try. Grapes are probably my favourite fruit.

Can they be grown in containers?

 

[Jessi]

You can grow them in containers, yep!

Keep in mind that grapes are on vines, though, and vines tend to want to....well, roam. They can easily get out of hand if you don't keep on them. It's doable, though!

 

[jubbly]

Thanks for the advice Jessie.

What sort of size pot would be right? And how big will the vines grow? Would you advise training them up something?

 

[Jessi]

As with most other new plants, you would start with a smaller pot and then work up to something a bit larger later.

I found this picture for your question about training them. If you have the option of something like this, it would be really good:

 

[Tmann]

I have had grapes growing for about 8 years now give or take a year. I grow them on my arbor above my patio, and boy was this a mistake. The main reason for putting them on my arbor was that I wanted something that would grow relatively fast and provide some shade, then the plus was that you could eat them. I have four different varieties of grapes and they all have seeds . Then as I have found out for the last 4 or 5 years, that raccoons really like grapes, and they have a grape stomping party on my patio with all the grapes. They get to them before I do.

I have a thornless blackberry bush which is huge and usually produces quite a bit of blackberries every year, however this past year did not provide a good yield. I wasn't sure if this was due to me pruning it back a little later in the spring than I normally do or the weather.

 

[iagirl]

Deer like them too. I have a salt water pool and its not too far from the grapevines. The deer go eat a little and then use their giant water dish to get a drink. It is kind of fun to watch them that close to the house but I have to keep up on grape picking. They eat a few of the leaves but don't do too much damage to the plants. I alway thought deer preferred greens but not these.

We don't eat a lot of the grapes because they are seeded. When I bought the plants they were supposed to be seedless. A few years later when they started fruiting turns out they aren't.

 

[sharp square]

I have never grown any grapes but i have quite a few blackberry plants growing along the fence that encloses my garden. I had a very productive crop last year as we got just enough rain to keep them nice and juicy. I love that i can grow them in space that would otherwise be wasted.

 

[happyflowerlady]

We had a bad year last year for blackberries, too. It was pretty not, and many of them that are along the edge of the woods just withered by the time they were getting ripe. We harvested some, but not many. So far, this spring seems to be having plenty of rain, so hopefully they will do better. We are going to dog up some starts from in the woods and replant them up closer in the yard where I can keep them watered better, so hopefully we will have berries, even in the dry years.
I also got some grapes to plant, but have to set them out yet. Now that I read the article about growing them in a flowerpot, I think I will try that also, and out some up by the porch where I can't dig to plant one. Thank you for the great idea to grow grapes in a pot !

 

[Jameela280]

Last year, my grandmother tried to grow blackberries and it was not a pleasant site, just not a good time. I think I will try planting strawberries because for as much as I love grapes, I want to try different fruits and then go black to the blackberries since it did not work so well.