How to Grow Grapes: A Grower's Guide to Grape Cultivation

Welcome to the world of viticulture - the study and practice of growing grapes! Whether you’re a home gardener or dreaming of starting a vineyard, learn the art of grape cultivation and its rewards.

Grapes are so fun to grow for eating as fresh fruit, making pie, jelly, juice, or wine and I don’t think they get enough love in the garden! In this post, you’ll learn the best types of grapes, the correct way to plant grapes, how to grow grapes, and how long until they're ready to harvest. Then, check out these other posts on how to prune grape vines and how to trellis grape vines for the best grape growing results.

Get ready for a journey into growing grapes.

A Grape-ful Attitude

My garden helps me cultivate a grape-ful attitude about life, live healthier, and establish food security. And I am passionate about helping you do the same!

To that end, I have created a series of complete growing guides, like this guide to growing grapes, to help you grow like a pro. Check out these other comprehensive growing guides:

• How to Grow Melons

• How to Grow Raspberries

• How to Grow Elderberries

• How to Grow Eggplant

• How to Grow Tomatoes

• How to Grow Cucumbers

Types of Grapes

Exploring grape varieties opens up a world of flavors. European varieties, like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, are famous for being top-notch wine grapes. Seedless grapes, like Thompson Seedless grapes, are sweet and perfect for snacking and salads.

If you want a really easy grape to grow, I recommend growing Concord grapes. They are essentially the standard grape variety and also one of the most disease-resistant.

Here's a table showing some popular grape varieties and their uses:

Whichever variety you choose, follow this guide to create the optimal growing habit.

Choosing the Best Trellis for Grape Vines

Don’t make the mistake of planting grapes first and then wondering about trellising later! You definitely want to get trellising done first because grapes require a trellis to grow on as soon as they start growing.

A good grapevine trellis system is vital for helping your vines grow well. I use a grape arbor (grape trellis) specifically designed with the correct spacing and overall construction ideal for grape growing.

It also allows for good airflow, which is super important for growing high-quality grapes! The best way to reduce disease and fungal issues that grapes are prone to is through adequate airflow. Pro-Tip: You can learn how to build a great DIY grape vine trellis, or you can also use a cattle panel trellis, an existing fence, a wooden lattice, or an arched trellis. 

Whatever you use, make sure it is strong enough to hold a lot of weight and sturdy enough to resist blowing around. Once you get a nice full vine of grapes, the last thing you want is for it to come crashing down on the ground! It is pretty hard to set it right again once that happens.

Amending & Fertilizing the Soil

Grapes are pretty resilient and grow in a wide variety of soil conditions. They like well drained soil, but they can handle clay as well. If you are planting grapes in heavy clay soil like I am, you should amend the soil with compost to soften and improve it.

Correcting the soil pH is even more important. Grapevines really like acidic soil with a pH of 5.5 to 6.0. If your pH is higher than that, you will need to amend with powdered sulfur for a good part of their lifespan.

Pro-Tip: Unnecessarily altering soil pH can throw the whole garden out of whack. Use this guide to test soil pH and the Rapitest Soil Tester before amending the soil so that you can adjust the pH based on what your soil really needs, not on a guess or recommendation!

After checking the soil pH, focus on the nutrients grapevines need. Grapevines are heavy feeders that need a lot of nitrogen. Nitrogen will be the biggest reason you either succeed or fail when growing grapes, so make sure to use a high-quality fertilizer, like Trifecta+, with plenty of nitrogen!

I’m not expecting our plants to fruit in their first year, so any other type of nutrient involved in fruiting, like potassium or phosphorus, is kind of irrelevant at the time of planting. Continuing to fertilize every growing season with a good, all-purpose fertilizer like Trifecta+ that contains fast-acting, slow-release nutrients, will ensure that your grapes always have the nutrients they need right when they need them.

How to Plant Grapes

When you start right, you have a better chance of ending right. So let’s talk about how to correctly plant grapes.

The best time to plant grapevines is early spring so they can develop a good root system. Bare-root plants are usually planted after the last hard frost has passed.

1. Sun - Pick a sunny location with good drainage to plant your grapes. These woody perennial vines love full sun!

2. Trellis - Build or install your trellis before planting your grapes. Use this guide to build a great DIY grape vine trellis.

3. Spacing - Mark out planting locations along your trellis. It is a very common mistake to crowd grapevines too close together. To properly space out your plants, plant your grapes roughly 5 feet apart. That means, on my 10-foot trellis, I am planting only two grapevines!

4. Growth Habit - For the best growth habit, make sure to plant your grapes directly below the trellis! Do not plant the grapevine out to the side of the trellis so it has to lean in.

5. Dig Holes - Dig holes at each planting location you marked. The holes should be larger than the size of the pot your grapevine is in.

6. Amend - Add your soil amendments and fertilizer to the hole before you plant your grapevine and gently mix it in with some loose soil.

7. Plant and Backfill - Place your grape plant in the hole and backfill around it. Make sure it is planted at the same depth as it was in the starting container.

8. Watering - Water your grapes in thoroughly when you are done transplanting them. Once grapes are established, I water them thoroughly about once every other week if I am growing table grapes, to achieve a nice crisp, crunchy, sweet grape. When growing for wine, you may want to water less to condense the sugars (which makes a sweeter, higher-quality wine).

Pro-Tip: It’s important to know that the amount you water grapes will change their sweetness, flavor, and texture! There’s a balance. Too much water and you’ll have really watery grapes with not much flavor. Not enough water and you will get dryer grapes that are sweet but have poor texture.

Pruning Grape Vines

Use patience when growing grapes! It takes years to do a good job and achieve a nice full plant. Proper pruning is key for drying out the foliage, preventing disease, and helping your grape plant stay healthier.

If you are starting with a pre-rooted plant, choose one with a Y-shape that has one main growth leader, splitting into two lateral growth points. Those two lateral growth points will form your first run.

Once you have the first run growing along the first wire of your trellis, prune the runs back to within a 5-foot span every year. You don’t want one grape plant to take up more than a 5-foot span because the production will suffer.

Next, select a leader from one of the lateral growths on the first wire to grow up to the second wire on the trellis. Prune that leader to create a fork with two runs on the second wire.

Continue this process each year, pruning the plant to keep it to a 5-foot span and choosing leaders to grow up to the next wire. It will take 3, 4, maybe 5 years for the vine to fill up the trellis.

Pro-Tip: If you don’t prune and maintain a grapevine, it will negatively affect plant health. For more detailed information and images of pruning grapes, see the blog post Complete Guide For How to Prune Grape Vines Correctly.

Common Diseases & Pests That Affect Grapes

Grapevines are very prone to disease because they have been so domesticated over time. Diseases like rust, powdery mildew and other forms of blight are common problems on grapes.

A baking soda solution can easily treat powdery mildew on grapes. Mix 2 tbsp of baking soda with a gallon of water in a pump sprayer and spray your grapes down.

I also spray them with a copper fungicide in late fall. It's important to catch it early and spray often so that the problem doesn’t get out of hand.

Pests could not be more important to control because they can absolutely ravage grapevines! From Japanese beetles to ants to aphids, there are so many pests you could come across.

If you want to grow grapes organically, the biggest thing is to use intercropping methods for pest control. In amongst our grapevines, I will be planting things like basil, marigolds, and dill because these fragrant herbs will mask the scent of the grapevine. Neem Oil or an insecticidal soap are both awesome options to further reduce pests.

Harvesting Grapes

The grape harvest is the highlight of the grape growing when all the hard work pays off, but don’t expect fruit production until the year after planting.

On subsequent years, check the color and taste of your grapes to know when they are ready to harvest. Gently pull one from the vine (it should pull away easily without clinging to the vine) and taste it to check sweetness.

When your grapes are ready to harvest, use sharp pruning shears to cut the stems cleanly just above the grape cluster. Now that you know how to grow grapes, it's time to give it a try!