Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera
Table grape
Common names: Edible grape, Table wine vine
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −18 °C
- Pruning
- Jan–Mar
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Spacing
- 130 cm, rows 200 cm
- Water need
- Low
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Table grapes are specially bred wine vines for fresh consumption, producing large, aromatic, often seedless berries. Robust, fungus‑resistant varieties such as Lakemont (seedless, light) or Vanessa (red) thrive even in harsh climates on a warm wall. They are low‑maintenance and a pleasure straight from the vine.
Care instructions
Plant the table grape on a sunny, sheltered south‑facing wall with loose, well‑drained soil and train it on a wire trellis. Prune it consistently in late winter (February week 8) and in summer remove leaves around the grapes to allow sun and air. Harvest from September (week 38) when the berries are sweet and fully colored.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestSep–Oct
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, sandy, humus-rich, well-drained, nutrient-rich
Grapevines need a deep, free-draining soil, because waterlogging leads to root rot. Loamy and sandy soils with good humus supply are equally suitable; if your soil is heavy and clayey, loosen it before planting with coarse sand and mature compost. The pH may lie within a wide range (about 5.5 to 7.5); in the allotment garden a slightly acidic to neutral value of around 6.0 to 6.5 is ideal.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Mar, Apr, Jun, Sep
In spring, shortly before growth starts (March/April), work compost and horn shavings in shallowly around the vine; this covers the basic nitrogen need slowly and gently on the soil. At flowering and early fruit formation (end of June), an application of diluted nettle feed or compost tea supports the potassium supply for strong bunches. In autumn (September), a few weeks before the harvest, mature, potassium-rich compost once more helps the wood ripen. From July, give no more nitrogen, otherwise the shoots stay soft and become more prone to fungal diseases.
Pruning
Prune your table grape in late winter (end of January to March at the latest), on a dry day above minus 5 °C and before the buds swell. When spur pruning on the cordon, you remove over 90 % of the one-year wood; late “bleeding” from dripping cuts does not harm the plant, but can drown buds, so it is better to prune early.
Overwintering
Earth up the graft union and the base of the trunk with soil or compost and lay brushwood or leaves over the root zone; you can take young shoots off the trellis, bundle them and cover them with brushwood or fleece. Uncover the graft union again in March, prune only in late winter, and place container vines sheltered against the house wall on an insulating board or, in severe frost, cool and bright in a frost-free place.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
- Grafting
Cuttings / hardwood cuttings (the most common method for home gardeners): when winter pruning (about November to February, while the vine is dormant), cut off strong, well-ripened one-year shoots and divide them into hardwood cuttings with 3 to 4 buds. Make the lower cut slanted directly below a bud, and the upper one straight about 1 cm above a bud. Insert the hardwood cuttings so deep into seed compost that only 1 to 2 buds show, and stand the pots bright and cool but frost-free. Keep the compost evenly moist, but avoid waterlogging. Roots form by spring; after the Ice Saints (mid/end of May) the young plants are strong enough for outdoors. Alternatively, you can take green cuttings in late summer.
Layering (reliable, but tied to the spot): in spring or early summer, choose a long, flexible, low young shoot. Dig a shallow trench, lay the middle part of the shoot in it and fix it with a stone or ground anchor. The shoot tip with 1 to 2 buds points out of the soil. By autumn the layer has formed roots of its own. Then you separate it from the parent plant and set it in its final place.
Grafting (quality plants true to type): in designated wine-growing regions with phylloxera risk, table grapes are grafted onto phylloxera-resistant rootstocks (for example Vitis riparia, Vitis berlandieri or Vitis cinerea crosses); own-root vines from cuttings or layering are legally restricted there. Grafting requires practice and suitable tools; for the home garden it is usually easier to buy grafted young plants from a nursery.
Why not sowing: table grape varieties do not come true to type from seed; the seedlings differ greatly from the parent. Only the vegetative routes (cutting, layering, grafting) preserve the variety's characteristics.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
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From the magazine
Table grapes in the garden: fungus-resistant varieties and the right pruning
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