I have never taken care of a mature grape vine and I do not know where to start Do we need a special fertilizer to feed this plant? Do we also need to prune it? If so when is the most auspicious time to prune the vines? Thanks I would greatly appreciate your feedback.
Hello Sonic: First we will need to know if your grape is a Wine Grape or not and I know you have several Wine Grape vineyards real close by to you. You may want to include a pic of your vine as we will need to know how large it is and do you have anything to use as a trellis. You will want to wait until November-December now to prune it as it may be advisable if you do not know whether you have a Table Grape, Wine Grape or a Raisin Grape for example. Yes, you will want to fertilize your plant but if it is overgrown now it might not be advisable to use anything other than a low nitrogen commercial granulated fertilizer. Below is a URL for you to go through and will take you to a series of helpful links on Grapes. You can access much more than first meets the eye from this URL. http://cetulare.ucdavis.edu/grape.htm Jim
Fertilize white grape vines in Florida ? I have two vines in my front yard this summer will be coming up on four years. The past two years we got about 12-15 grapes on the vines, but that is all. I am having a hard time finding a good fertilizer for our type of soil: sandy loam, most likely slightly acidic from the oak trees that are around it. Thank you for any help you can give me with this problem, we have been looking forward to some good grapes but are getting disappointed. I certalinly appreciate the service you are running from UBC.
Poor fruit set in grapes can be the result of weather conditions during bloom. Grapes are pollinated without much assistance from bees & flies, although they can be a factor. Cold wet conditions even for a few days can stall the flower opening. You can have up to 4 seeds per grape; those with 2 or less pollinated will frequently drop off within a few weeks after blooming. I guess I should have asked first: are you getting a good bloom? If not, then I would suggest a soil analysis including micro-nutrients. Too little or too much nitrogen can interfere with fruit set. The third most common fruit set issue is pesticide residue. Try www.fgga.org (Florida Grape Growers Assn.) or www.smallfruits.org (the Southern Region Small Fruit consortium) for more area specific assistance.
