Growing grapes, starting with the trellis

Q: How do I choose the right grape for my winters?

“Grape” covers two broad traditions. American types (Concord and its kin) are the hardy, forgiving, slip-skin juice-and-jelly grapes. European types are the wine and classic table grapes, which want longer, warmer seasons and milder winters and carry less disease resistance across much of North America. In cold-winter country the American types and their hybrids are the safer first choice. The planner’s zone check tells you which side of that line your site sits on.

A grape lives twenty years, needs its trellis up before planting day, and wants the job most gardeners skip, which is real pruning.

A bunch of dark grapes on the vine — Vitis includes American and European types by cultivar group. Photo: Barry Fontaine · CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Check what a grape needs at your place ›

What you need

A permanent, full-sun spot you will not want back, because this is a twenty-year decision
The trellis or arbor BUILT before the vine goes in, strong enough to hold a woody plant
Pruning shears and the willingness to use them hard every late winter

Everything else in this guide family is a season-long commitment. A grape is a woody vine that lives twenty years or more, gets heavier every one of them, and makes its two real demands before you ever taste fruit. Site it the way you’d site a small tree.

What do I need in place before I plant a grape?

A grape needs a strong support the way a tomato needs sun. In the planner it’s a hard requirement, and it’s the one crop where the structure has to exist before planting day. You can’t add an arbor around an established vine without wrecking it. Build the support for what the vine becomes, a woody trunk and arms carrying fruit, wind and years, and ignore how thin the whip from the nursery looks. A post-and-wire run, a cattle-panel wall, or a real arbor all work. The staking guide calls this the permanent class of support, and it’s why the planner’s grape arrangement is built around its trellis.

How do I choose the right grape for my winters?

“Grape” covers two broad traditions. American types (Concord and its kin) are the hardy, forgiving, slip-skin juice-and-jelly grapes. European types are the wine and classic table grapes, which want longer, warmer seasons and milder winters and carry less disease resistance across much of North America. In cold-winter country the American types and their hybrids are the safer first choice. The planner’s zone check tells you which side of that line your site sits on.

What matters most in the first couple of years?

For its first two years a new vine grows wood. Year one grows a single trunk up to the wire, and year two grows the arms along it. Most guidance pulls off the flowers both years so the plant spends itself on structure. It feels like a long wait, and it’s the right trade. Fruit comes from then on, on a frame that can hold it.

How hard should I prune a grapevine?

This is the job you can’t skip. Grapes fruit on shoots that grow from last year’s wood, and a vine left alone turns into a thicket of old wood that fruits less every year while mildew thrives in the tangle. Every late winter, while the vine is dormant, cut off most of the previous season’s growth. That’s far more than feels reasonable, often the great majority of it. Sun and air through an open canopy, on a vine renewed every year, is most of grape disease control and most of the fruit quality. Judge ripeness by taste. Grapes stop ripening the moment they’re cut, so unlike nearly everything else in the garden, picking early buys you nothing.

A grape earns its keep for decades from one well-sited, well-built start. Get the spot and the structure right in the first week and the pruning habit right in the first winter, and the vine handles the rest.