Growing Coronation Grape in Container

Discussion in 'Grapes and Grape Vines' started by Gerry, Jan 26, 2007.

  1. Gerry

    Gerry Member

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    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    We have a Coronation Grape vine that is now in its fifth year which is growing in a 20" pot on our patio. It was intended to be part decoration with hopefully some fruit as an added bonus, trained to grow over our main condo entrance in one direction and over French doors in the other. I allowed it to fruit modestly first in 2005 (which had a small yield of about 7 smallish bunches of grapes); the vine also seemed more vigorous that year. 2006 however resulted in no fruit whatsoever (fewer blooms which dropped) plus smaller/yellower foliage; leaves also began to brown and dropped earlier in autumn. Fertilization in 2006 consisted of some top dressing with a small amount of dolopril lime, then low nitrogen liquid fertilizer (to promote fruiting) in spring and fish fertilizer every other week during summer. Short of performing a soil analysis, what fertilizing/liming steps should I be taking for better results in 2007? I have only top dressed with some enriched soil at the tail near the end of fall. I have received conflicting advice on grape vines, that "being too nice" to them results in lush foliage and little fruit, that they thrive in relatively poor soil, that grape vines often have their best yields every other year, etc. Other advice however has suggested that this size of plant may simply have exhausted this size container's soil of its essential nutrients. As a sidebar, I did notice that non-containerized and (otherwise more vigorous) grape vines in our neighbourhood seemed to have lower grape harvests in 2006. Any advice on how to proceed in 2007? Thank you.
     
  2. daniewium

    daniewium Member

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    Location:
    Western Cape, South Africa
    Hi Gerry,
    There could be several reasons why your grape vine isn't doing as it shouls.

    No1 I would say is because it is growing in a pot. A grape vine has a huge ruting system that penetrate the soil it grows in for many feet.

    The second thing is, that if you have bad weather (very strong wind, rain, not enough sunshine and very cold conditions) it can effect the amount of grapes a grape vine will produce.

    Third, if you fertilize with any kind of N (nitrogen) during bloom, your grape vine can abort the flowers. Stop giving N two weeks before bloom and just water the vine.

    Fourth, I don't know how vigorous your vine is growing, but a too vigrous vine tends to have less fruit because of bad sunlight penetration into the vine. The shoots and buds of a grape vine needs lots of sunligh to get "ripe" (as we call it)

    Fifth, If you incorrectly prune your grape vine, it could also reduce the crop size you will have. Some varieties must be cane pruned and not spur pruned in order to have a decent crop.

    Well my friend, I hope this info will help you in growing your grape vine.

    Danie
    "The Grape Guy"
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 3, 2007

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