Your 2026 Garden

[CatInTheHenHouse]

The twins have been doing well enough for long enough I moved them back in with the other seedlings. They actually have bigger true leaves than the ones that didn’t get transplanted.

 

[FernwoodHollow]

Does anyone in here have experience growing grapes? Theyre new to me.

I impulse bought 4 dormant grape plants cause they were on sale at Tractor Supply when I went for chicken feed lol and I have no idea where to put these things.

Everything I look at online says these things are going to grow like billions of feet tall and take down buildings and I'm not sure if that's super over exaggerated or not. I have a couple different options based on where in my property gets the most Sun but none of them would be more than 8 ft high. I assume with aggressive pruning I can keep them producing and under 8 ft high correct?

Or I have a rock retaining wall that's about 9 ft high I could grow them along I could attach some netting so they have something to climb or because I have a walkout basement I have a 12-ft high cement wall on the side of my house that I could put a heavy duty rigid steel 8 ft hog fence panel on so it could climb that. That last option would aesthetically be the best option for how I have everything set up but I obviously don't want it to like pull foundation down but I'm wondering if I stay on top of pruning if grapes are really as intense as the internet makes them seem.

Also any growing tips you have would be great I bought two concord one green one red. Thanks!

 

[kattabelly]

Does anyone in here have experience growing grapes? Theyre new to me.

I impulse bought 4 dormant grape plants cause they were on sale at Tractor Supply when I went for chicken feed lol and I have no idea where to put these things.

Everything I look at online says these things are going to grow like billions of feet tall and take down buildings and I'm not sure if that's super over exaggerated or not. I have a couple different options based on where in my property gets the most Sun but none of them would be more than 8 ft high. I assume with aggressive pruning I can keep them producing and under 8 ft high correct?

Or I have a rock retaining wall that's about 9 ft high I could grow them along I could attach some netting so they have something to climb or because I have a walkout basement I have a 12-ft high cement wall on the side of my house that I could put a heavy duty rigid steel 8 ft hog fence panel on so it could climb that. That last option would aesthetically be the best option for how I have everything set up but I obviously don't want it to like pull foundation down but I'm wondering if I stay on top of pruning if grapes are really as intense as the internet makes them seem.

Also any growing tips you have would be great I bought two concord one green one red. Thanks!

Commercial growers generally plant their vines quite close together and train them on wires less than 8ft at the highest, so it's definitely possible if you keep on top of pruning.

Remember that you can also train them horizontally if you don't have much space for them to grow up.

 

[FernwoodHollow]

Commercial growers generally plant their vines quite close together and train them on wires less than 8ft at the highest, so it's definitely possible if you keep on top of pruning.

Remember that you can also train them horizontally if you don't have much space for them to grow up.

Cool! I'm also very short so would prefer not to have to get a ladder to pick the grapes so if I keep it pruned to 6 or 7 feet high it'll still produce decently? I am trying to find balance between making sure I get enough fruit for it to be worth it and not making it a pain in the butt to pick and make sure it doesnt damage the wall or anything haha

Or it sounds like i could let it get that tall but then train it almost like in squigggles so it just trained like an M almost to let it keep going but not get too high up?

 

[kattabelly]

Cool! I'm also very short so would prefer not to have to get a ladder to pick the grapes so if I keep it pruned to 6 or 7 feet high it'll still produce decently? I am trying to find balance between making sure I get enough fruit for it to be worth it and not making it a pain in the butt to pick and make sure it doesnt damage the wall or anything haha

Or it sounds like i could let it get that tall but then train it almost like in squigggles so it just trained like an M almost to let it keep going but not get too high up?

You could train it in squiggles or one looooong line at five feet off the ground if you wanted to!

This RHS page has pictures of the different pruning methods that are commonly used, and links to a more detailed page about each method at the bottom of that page.

I assume you've checked it'll be ok with the winters you get there, if it'll be outdoors?

 

[fuzzi]

We have the last thing from a "mild winter" ever here, but our kale will come up each year. It gets really gangly but still grows as tall as if we planted it. It's also got fewer leaves, but who cares, it is free, and we did nothing.

It's very healthy for chickens and that's the only reason we grow it. You have to hold it for them or tie the stalks and hang it. Someone here maybe had the brilliant idea of putting a paver on the ends. All ways that chickens can pull pieces off and not drag a whole stalk of it around with them.

I think that was me, holding the stalks down with a brick. Not brillant, just trying to make things work.

Any greens I grow are for both me and my flocks. They don't care if the leaves are wormy, but enjoy the added protein treat.

 

[FernwoodHollow]

You could train it in squiggles or one looooong line at five feet off the ground if you wanted to!

This RHS page has pictures of the different pruning methods that are commonly used, and links to a more detailed page about each method at the bottom of that page.

I assume you've checked it'll be ok with the winters you get there, if it'll be outdoors?

Perfect thank you I'll check that out! And yes! If I mulch the base heavy in the fall they'll be ok going dormant in the winter according to the varietal zones listed on the plant so we shall see! They were only 8 bucks each so if they dont end up working out they dont work out haha

I'm also a super arachniphobe and i know grape plants can attract them pretty heavily so if that happens I wont be harvesting them anyway and won't keep them after this season anyway (I know theyre harmless and beneficial etc etc, its a phobia not a fear so rationale/logic doesnt matter haha)

 

[Debbie292d]

Does anyone in here have experience growing grapes? Theyre new to me.

I impulse bought 4 dormant grape plants cause they were on sale at Tractor Supply when I went for chicken feed lol and I have no idea where to put these things.

Everything I look at online says these things are going to grow like billions of feet tall and take down buildings and I'm not sure if that's super over exaggerated or not. I have a couple different options based on where in my property gets the most Sun but none of them would be more than 8 ft high. I assume with aggressive pruning I can keep them producing and under 8 ft high correct?

Or I have a rock retaining wall that's about 9 ft high I could grow them along I could attach some netting so they have something to climb or because I have a walkout basement I have a 12-ft high cement wall on the side of my house that I could put a heavy duty rigid steel 8 ft hog fence panel on so it could climb that. That last option would aesthetically be the best option for how I have everything set up but I obviously don't want it to like pull foundation down but I'm wondering if I stay on top of pruning if grapes are really as intense as the internet makes them seem.

Also any growing tips you have would be great I bought two concord one green one red. Thanks!

We grow seedless grapes. We make jelly for the oreoles in the summer.

We had leftover 8' parts from putting up our tower. We put those about 4' apart and a grape at the base of each. We had three grape plants, and the middle one didn't make it, so that worked out perfectly, actually. They spread like mad. We did not prune except where we had to. We do fertilize twice with Miracle-Gro regular, once in spring and once mid-summer.

If you get Japanese beetles, they attract those, so we spray ours with Neem oil and pick the bugs off weekly.

We mulched them in the fall for the first couple of years, and now, in the last few years, we haven't.

 

[FernwoodHollow]

We grow seedless grapes. We make jelly for the oreoles in the summer.

We had leftover 8' parts from putting up our tower. We put those about 4' apart and a grape at the base of each. We had three grape plants, and the middle one didn't make it, so that worked out perfectly, actually. They spread like mad. We did not prune except where we had to. We do fertilize twice with Miracle-Gro regular, once in spring and once mid-summer.

If you get Japanese beetles, they attract those, so we spray ours with Neem oil and pick the bugs off weekly.

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I didnt even think to check if the ones i got were seedless or not I'll have to check tomorrow. I do have Japanese beetles here but I dont get many in my plants weirdly enough and same just pick or flick them off when I see them, lots of milipedes though which are super beneficial atleast. What about 8 legged visitors?

 

[Debbie292d]

I didnt even think to check if the ones i got were seedless or not I'll have to check tomorrow. I do have Japanese beetles here but I dont get many in my plants weirdly enough and same just pick or flick them off when I see them, lots of milipedes though which are super beneficial atleast. What about 8 legged visitors?

We don't get those millipedes here or if we do, I don't see them. It's just those Japanese beetles. They suck the grapes dry.\\

We carry a bucket of water with a few drops of soap in it and drop them in to kill 'em. I don't know if it helps year to year to do that, but they say it does with boxelder bugs so I'll go with that lol.