Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

I have the most amazing grape vine, it was here when I bought the house and it's an Italia grape, or muscatel. Extremely sweet, with very strong aroma..

Only one problem.





I am only getting the odd grape here and there, damn rats are getting them all.... They are selectively picking through them as the ripen eating them all, you can even see the little dark smudges where they have been crawling over the edge of the gutter into the grape vine.

Tomorrow I'm putting baits out, I've had enough...

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www.backyardfarming.com.au
Bringing Food Production Home

EB, you might try protecting individual bunches. I save the small red onion bags for that sort of thing. I've netted my last apple after the parrots picked off the others and left them untouched on the ground.

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Granny Smith

Grapes when do grapes fruit i have 3 in have had grapes before.
Last year the possuns pruned everything in the garden this year there is no possums [something about relocating them to the other side of a busy road ]
The grapes have put on lots of growth both in ap and dirt garden and theres no fruit [why ]

Rats you have to be pro active in getting them all out of the area. Baits, traps. Stopping there access to different areas. If you know they get from the gutters to the vines put a pipe with a bucket of water under it. Little oil and they slip right off. If you can find the nest you can bait near it. There is a powder that works well. They get it on there feed and ingests it while cleaning. Do your dogs keep them off the ground in the yard.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

We have several large grape vines that grow off one of our border fences. They were here when we bought the place 6-7 years ago. They have a smallish red fruit with seed/s. They are not entirely unpleasant, but not real good either. I suspect they are probably a wine grape. I really should look at planting an eating variety. Anybody got any recommendations for what would do well in South East Queensland?

Crimson Seedless, Flame Seedless and Ruby Seedless may grow well in your area. Thompson Seedless, IMO is the best tasting grape but is susceptable to rain damage over Summer
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/DPI/nreninf.n ... BBE65?open

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Cheers
Tristrin
our aquaponics http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... =18&t=6875
backyard viewtopic.php?f=24&t=107

VB, I've given up on grapes here, and this is the same climate as Brisbane. They start of great in spring but the humid wet summer trashes them. The one I had was from Daleys and recommended for sub tropics, but never got any fruit to speak of.

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If you think you can,
If you think you can't,
Either will be true.
Henry Ford

Im central Qld and Ive got a sultana and muscat had them for 2 years so far.
They do get powdery mildew but i spray with milk and it seems to work,my main problem so far is grass hoppers and caterpillars.
They have been stripped leafless about 3 0r 4 times each in the middle of their growing season.
They can do it in less than a day so I have no time to react.
Im hoping when they get a bit bigger (if) they will be able to cope.
Then its just birds rats possums and bats
Should be fun.

Any one got some good advice on when and how grape vines should be pruned, living in the Swan Valley region you would think I would know but i don't?

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

1
Allow the grape vine to grow any-which-way the first year it is in the ground. Having abundant stems and leaves will help develop a strong root system on immature grape vines. No pruning at all for the first year.

2
Select the strongest and most vigorous-looking stem during the winter of the first year. Using bypass pruners, remove all the other stems at the base of the plant or as close to the trunk on the main stem as possible. Stake the remaining stem which will become the trunk of the plant. Use a grape stake or secure the vine along a fence with wire.

3
Allow stems to grow from the main trunk. In the spring of the second year, begin removing all but two of the very best side shoots that grow from the trunk. If the vine isn't branching where you want it too, pinch the top of the main trunk to encourage side branching.

4
Cut back the top of the trunk during midsummer of the second year, when the vine reaches the desired height. The process of tip pruning will force new growth along the main trunk. Remove any new branches that don't fit your plan.

5
Cut back all but the desired side branches and the main trunk during the second winter. What you have now is the basic frame for the plant - an upright stem with two sets of side branches.

6
Allow the vine to grow during the third spring and summer, removing anything that grows from the trunk. You want to retain the basic framework of the vine.

7
Leave 12 buds along each of the arms during the third winter. Pruning during the third winter is crucial to future fruit production. These 12 are the buds that will produce fruit during the 4th summer. Each of the 12 should have 1-2 leaf joints so that the vine looks like a stubby hat rack when you are finished pruning. These are called 'renewal buds' and will remain on the plant forever.

8
Prune the 12 renewal buds so that there is always one more bud growing from the tip. This practice will continue from the fourth winter onward. What you are doing is allowing the renewal buds to extend and grow one bud length every season. During the summer, the fruit develops on the new growth that springs from the renewal bud. Keeping them short during the dormant season keeps the plants under control.

Comprehensive, thanks mate

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

Great info thanks. Have you got the good oil on fertilizing and foliar spray regiems?

I also heard from an orcharist that you should only spray grass around the base with glyphosate in Spring, at other times of the year there can be translocation to the vine somehow, was not sure on this but would like to know if anyone else has heard it. He said if you want to spray in summer you need to use something else, I think a fine leaf spray?

Why waist time and money and destroy your soil microbes and bacteria with herbicides?
Plant a living mulch
http://greenharvest.com.au/SeedOrganic/ ... Mulch.html

I use glyphosate once a year around the base of each vine as they are within my front lawn which is Kikuyu. This along with directional mowing with a mulching mower which shoots the clippings towards the line of vines leaves a mulched base and it is all I need. I have no problem using a small amount of glyphosate once a year and was more interested in knowing if anyone new anything about the effect of spraying grape vines in different seasons.