Delight C Cotton
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Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:37 pm
Location: Arizona

Concord Grape Vines but no grapes

:? For the past 3-4 years my 3 concord grape plants have given me grapes. small grapes but nonetheless grapes. This year, although the vines are strong and the leaves green and big, there isn't one single grape between the 3 plants. The only thing I did differently this year was to use organic Alaskan Fish Emulsion for fertilizer.

Why did the vines not produce grapes this year?

MaryDel
Senior Member
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:42 am
Location: Delaware

Are you pruning your grapes? Grapes only bear on the portion of vine that was grown last season. Kind of like peaches only growing on last years shoots. When are you fertilizing? Grapes should only be pruned and fertilized in the winter. An old timer once told me that if you wanted the best tasting grapes around to put dog poop on them :shock:


I use Labrador myself.......

Delight C Cotton
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Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:37 pm
Location: Arizona

The grape vines are dormate during the Winter so I don't fertilize until Spring and then about every 3 weeks till Fall. I've always pruned my vines down to about two feet and in prior years got grapes on the new shoots .. guess I'll stop pruning so low and let the old vines stay.

BTW .. I was thinking on moving them to another part of the yard as I started a new, larger garden area. Would it be safe to move them once they've gone dormate in the winter?

MaryDel
Senior Member
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:42 am
Location: Delaware

You still need to prune your vines every year. New growth that is encouraged by pruning. The vines that grow this spring with no fruit on them will be the vines that bear fruit next summer. You want to make sure you cut out vines that have fruited the previous season. I used to put twisty ties on the fruiting vines in the spring, so I know which ones need to be cut out in the winter. From everything I have read, you only want to prune and fertilize your grapes in the winter, when they are dormant. I fertilize mine with a 5 gallon bucket (each) of dog poop once a year. I have more grapes than I know what to do with.


I cane prune my concord grapes. There is a load of good info out there on the internet.

https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/pdf/1428.pdf

Delight C Cotton
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Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:37 pm
Location: Arizona

Thanks. Boy I can sure build up a 5 gallon of dog poop .. I have a Chocolate Lab / Shar Pei mix who's a good pooper. I'll have to try that. I did recently go out to the web and learned that if you fertilize grapes too often, you get beautiful vines and no grapes .. That grapes prefer relatively poor soil so that would explain it because in addition to the fertilizer I've also cultivated in fresh organic mulch into the soil around the vines .. plus I was cutting all the vines down when I pruned so there's another reason.

I was thinking on moving them to a new area I just opened up for gardening but am not sure when to move them. Been reading on that and it says the roots are deep and to be sure to get as much up as possible so maybe I'll just leave them as is for now and try not fertilizing them as much. At least this year I won't have to prune much since none of the vines produced any fruit.

I like your idea about putting twisties on the vines that produced fruit otherwise trying to determine which did and which didn't could get quick complex.

So .. thanks again. .. P.S. I thought you were kidding at first about the dog poop !

judybroch
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Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 10:29 am
Location: New Haven, MO

We have one Concord grape plant. It has produced every year. In 2009, we had a problem with disease or fungus, causing black spots on leaves and grapes. This year, we have beautiful vines, but not a grape. We pruned in March, a little later than previously. Could that have caused no grapes? We always prune to about 12 - 18 inches. Good to know about the dog poop.

Delight C Cotton
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Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:37 pm
Location: Arizona

:) Hi .. I have since read that dog poop is NOT recommended because it contains too many contaminants harmful to humans .. but that one person said she uses it all the time. I use organic fish emulsion and organic home made compost. What I also learned from reading more on this is that grapes grow ONLY on vines from the year before .. I cut them way down last time .. so I think that was my problem. They also advised to trim/prune the vines .. but leave much of them intact since grapes only grow on the vines from the year before .. which means .. next year I should have an abundant of grapes because I have lots of vines with beautiful large green leaves .. so I know the vines are healthy. Good Luck

trvallier
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Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2016 7:33 pm

My Concord grapevine are beautiful, about 15 feet tall x ?15 wide ,very few grapes, I was told to prune them back to about 2 feet, the vines look great, just several grapes. My grape vine are about 10 years old, every year the same, please help,. These are Concord grapes,I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Where the winter are very cold



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