Find out how to grow grapes?

When it comes to growing grapes there are different sorts of grapes available. What grapes you choose will depend on what your goal is. There are many different reasons why people choose to grow grapes, some of these are:

• they want to make their own wine and growing grapes will help them do this
• want to use grapes to turn a profit
• there are even those that want to break into the sultana market with seedless grapes
• just for fun

Making great tasting wine is the eventual goal of this article and so we will be specifically looking at how to grow grapes for wine. What sort of wine do yu prefer? White or red? This will be your first choice, red grapes for red wine or green grapes for white wine, the choice is yours. Depending on where you are located will also have an effect on which variety of grape you select.

We will not go into to much detail here as we are more discussing how to grow grapes rather then how to choose grapes but the two varieties available for wine are the European grape or the hybrid grape.

Now lets get into how to grow them:

Do you have a good growing site for your grape vines? This means that they need to be in the full sunlight and also have nutrient-poor soil. The bad soil will stress out your grape vines and help it to produce small grapes which is the sort of grapes that are needed for making wine.

Your grape vines will need to have room to grow properly, you will need to make sure that you spread them out - a space of about 8 feet should be more then enough for this. It is also a strategic idea to have a trellis for your grape vines as this will help out with getting your grapes to grow straight and evenly.

If possible, try and plant your new grape vineyard on a slope or side of a hill. The reason for this is that it will help with drainage, grapevines require their roots to have a good drainage system as they do not need to have a lot of water. Even in the dry season you may only need to water them once a week. When the grapes change color it is time to stop watering them altogether until it is getting close to winter and all the leaves have fallen off, you want to water at this time because the ground may freeze during winter and the grape vines will need water to last through before this happens.

Birds and other pests can be a nuisance so you will need to put netting over the top of your grape vines. Double netting is recommended and there are a few different net options for this.

Pruning is one of the most critical parts of growing grapes. The grape vines will need to be pruned every year and if not done properly can cause your grapes to grow and ripen unevenly. Pruning is an art form, however with practice and training it can be done properly for a good grape result.

The last thing to look at is the sugar and ph levels, this will have a huge effect on the taste of your wine. This is also why every wine is different.

Now get out there and start your own grape vineyard.