Your 2026 Garden

[FernwoodHollow]

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.

Awesome! Your garden looks awesome by the way I love how layered it is with all the different heights!

 

[Sally PB]

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

My grape vines is one of my stops on my Japanese Beetle hunts. I give the JBs to the chickens.

Last summer was the first year we got grapes on our vines. It was their 3rd summer. I got a few, the birds got nearly all of them.
The birds get just about all our fruit! Cherries, blueberries, half the black raspberries, and now, grapes. I gave up on strawberries.

 

[Debbie292d]

Awesome! Your garden looks awesome by the way I love how layered it is with all the different heights!

Oh thank you, but it's a jungle out there, and a lot of weeds lol.

 

[Debbie292d]

My grape vines is one of my stops on my Japanese Beetle hunts. I give the JBs to the chickens.

Last summer was the first year we got grapes on our vines. It was their 3rd summer. I got a few, the birds got nearly all of them.
The birds get just about all our fruit! Cherries, blueberries, half the black raspberries, and now, grapes. I gave up on strawberries.

We are about done with strawberries too. We bought that netting for them and draped the grapes, but then they get mixed up into that so it's hard to get off to pick them or beetles.

Maybe we just have so many that I don't notice that the birds are getting them, though. We do feed the birds, so that may help a little, too, except just those that like sunflower seeds, as that's all we feed.

 

[jxp]

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!

• Air circulation is critical, they're not ivy, don't plant right up against the wall
• Grapes love sunshine (that's why they climb)
• Thirsty buggers so lots of water especially during fruiting (but not constantly soggy soil)
• They need very little amendments to the soil so don't go hog wild with them
• Plant at soil level about 8 ft / 2.5 m apart
• A trellis would work for them to climb or horizontal wires would be better
• They can get pretty heavy when full of leaves and drupes so set your support posts deeper than you think necessary
• Select your main cane in the first year.
• I'm sure there's more I'm missing but this should get you started.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Another way to serve greens to chickens is to put them in a suet cage and hang that in the run.

That is a great idea and I have an extra one to use! Thanks

 

[Sally PB]

We do feed the birds, so that may help a little, too, except just those that like sunflower seeds, as that's all we feed.

So maybe if I feed the little flying pigs, I might get some fruit off my plants...? Hmmmm.

 

[Sally PB]

Select your main cane in the first year.

Ummmm... I didn't know this so I didn't do this. They're climbing a fence. I have 4 vines along about 30 feet of fence. But each vine has more than one cane coming up from the soil.

I did know that they need good air flow, so I have trimmed out some of the side branches, hoping to keep the strongest ones. I've judged them by their thickness.

My neighbor has some kind of concord (?) growing, and WOW! those vines just go to town in the summer! Lots of leaves, lots of grapes, growing on THICK canes. The canes coming out of the ground are about 3" in diameter. I don't know if they prune or have ever pruned them.

 

[Debbie292d]

little flying pigs

Do you also call squirrels tree rats?

 

[Debbie292d]

So maybe if I feed the little flying pigs, I might get some fruit off my plants...? Hmmmm.

I'm not saying they don't still partake, but if the "little flying pigs" are already full or half full, it stands to reason they might not eat as much.

We only put out sunflower seeds, so any bird that likes fruit that doesn't eat sunflower seeds is still probably there. I couldn't say which ones, maybe sparrows and blackbirds? That's why we put out just sunflower seeds to keep them bastages off our feeders.