Interested in growing grapes in your backyard? Whether you’re planting grapes for fresh eating, homemade wine, or delicious jelly, these vigorous vines offer beauty and bounty.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to grow grapes at home, including tips on choosing the right grape varieties, planting, pruning, and harvesting. With proper care, your grapevine can produce sweet, juicy fruit for decades, making it one of the most rewarding plants to grow in your garden.

Grape vines not only produce sweet and versatile fruits, but they also add an element of drama to a garden or landscape. They are vigorous growers, and with the proper pruning, they will produce fruit with ease within a few years and last for 30 years or more!

For home gardeners, there are three main types of grapes to consider: American (Vitis labrusca), European (V. vinifera), and French-American hybrids. American grapes are the most cold-hardy, while European grapes—usually better for wine than the table—do well in warm, dry, Mediterranean-type zones. Hybrids tend to be both cold-hardy and disease-resistant, but are not as flavorful as European grapes. Another type that is grown in the U.S. is the Muscadine (V. rotundifolia), which is native to the southern United States. The Muscadine grape’s thick skin makes it best suited for use in jams, wine, or other processed grape products.

Make sure you purchase grape vines from a reputable nursery. Vigorous, 1-year-old plants are best. Smaller, sometimes weaker, 1-year-old plants are often held over by the nursery to grow another year and are then sold as 2-year-old stock. Obtain certified virus-free stock when possible.

Planting

Grapevines should be planted in early spring after the date of the last hard freeze has passed. Vines are usually purchased as dormant, bare-root plants.
Most grape varieties are self-fertile. To be sure, ask when you are buying vines if you will need more than one plant for pollination.
Select a site with full sun. If you don’t have a spot with full sun, make sure it at least gets morning sun. A small amount of afternoon shade won’t hurt. Your soil needs to be deep, well-drained, and loose. You also need good air circulation.
Grape vines will need to be trained to some sort of support to grow upward. This will also cut the risk of disease. The support needs to be in place at planting.
- One option is a sturdy trellis or arbor. The arbor may have two, four or six posts, depending on whether it’s attached to the house or another structure. The top can be secured with 2-inch by 4-inch wooden slats that hold the arbor together and topped with 1-inch by 2-inch wood pieces to create the latticework for the vines to grow on. You may also need corner braces to secure the whole structure. Grow the grapes, one per post, selecting the strongest cane. Allow it to grow to the top of the post the first year, securing it to the post as it grows.
- If you are low on free space, try growing grapes on a stake. Pound in a sturdy stake next to the grapevine and securely attach it. Keep the vine growing vertically. Let the vine grow to the top of the stake the first year, then top it. Allow 4 to 5 side canes to grow. Remove all the rest.
Before planting grapevines, soak their roots in water for two or three hours.
Space vines 6 to 10 feet apart (16 feet for muscadines).
For each vine, dig a planting hole 12 inches deep and 12 inches wide. Fill with 4 inches of topsoil. Trim off broken roots and set the vine into the hole slightly deeper than it grew in the nursery. Cover the roots with 6 inches of soil and tamp down. Fill with the remaining soil, but don’t tamp this down.
Water at time of planting.

Growing

Do not fertilize in the first year unless you have problem soil. Fertilize lightly in the second year of growth.
Use mulch to keep an even amount of moisture around the vines.
A mesh net is useful in keeping birds away from budding fruit.

Pruning Grapes

Pruning is very important. Grapes produce fruit on shoots growing off of one-year-old canes. If you have too many old canes (from no pruning), then you’ll get fewer grapes. If you prune back your vines completely each year, then you get lots of new growth, but again, few grapes.

Pruning is done in late winter when the plant is dormant, usually around March. But for the first year or so, the goal is to create a strong root system and trunk. Plant in spring and prune back the grapevine to three buds. Then wait until the first winter.

If you are growing grapes on an arbor or trellis: Grow the grapes, one per post, selecting the strongest cane. Allow it to grow to the top of the post the first year, securing it to the post as it grows. The first winter, top the cane and allow it to grow side branches along the top of the arbor. If you let the vines just continue to grow, they will produce dense shade, but little fruit. Prune the grapes each winter by removing those canes that fruited the previous year, cutting back one-year-old canes to five to six buds, and leaving some renewal canes pruned back to two to three buds. The goal is to have canes on the trellis spaced 2 to 3 feet apart. Remove any weak, thin canes. You want to leave enough fruiting canes on the trellis to fill it back in each summer, but not so many that it becomes a tangled mess.
If you are growing grapes on a stake, cut back the side canes in the first winter to three buds on each. These will send out shoots that will produce grapes the next year. Remove all weak and spindly growth, especially along the lower parts of the trunk. The second winter, prune back the healthiest canes to six to ten buds, select two canes as renewal spurs, and prune those back to three buds on each and remove all other canes. Repeat this pruning each winter. Your trunk should be able to support four to seven fruiting canes each year as it gets older.

Types

Note: Seedless varieties will produce smaller grapes.

‘Edelweiss’: Hardy in zones 4–7 (–20°F), early white variety. Table and wine.
‘Reliance’: Hardy in zones 4–8, seedless, pink table grape.
‘Seibel’: Hybrid, wine grape. Cold hardy.
‘Swenson Red’: Hardy in zones 4–8, red table grape.
‘Magnolia’: White Muscadine wine grape. Sweet. Best in zones 7–9.
‘Valiant’: Eating grape hardy to Zone 2.

Fruit

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening, so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

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Comments

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<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 08/11/2014 - 10:33

The bigger the container the better. Grape roots like to spread out. Make sure the pot has good drainage and mix equal parts of good quality topsoil, peat moss, and compost for the soil mix. You can use a trellis for support or place the container close to a wall or fence for extra support. Prune in late winter when the grape is dormant.

Max Mcfarlin Wed, 07/23/2014 - 19:53

Three years ago I was given 4 grape vines. I built arbors and planted them. This is the 1st time I have gotten a crop of any size - perhaps 50 bunches. But the bunches are ripening unevenly. In a bunch, there will be green grapes, ripe grapes, and even a few over ripe grapes. When should I harvest them and what should I do after I harvest them? max

Ted Jenkins Sat, 07/19/2014 - 12:36

I've planted two vines (Vitis Flame Seedless) and trained the vine to grow up posts to an 8' trellis. Still in the first year, they've reached the top and I guess I want to halt growth for the year. Do I simply cut back the new growth to allow the vine to get stronger? Thanks

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 07/21/2014 - 18:43

Normally, we only prune it back vigorously in the early spring when the vine is still dormant before leaf-out happens. If you need to prune it back to reduce too much growth, however, it should be OK as long as it's not too severe.

Gus Khattab Sat, 07/19/2014 - 09:25

I planted varieties of grapes in my yard, seeded and seedless within some 6 ft. from each other. I am now wondering whether all of them will produce seeded fruit by cross pollination.

Rkate Sun, 07/13/2014 - 21:35

We transplanted a mature grapevine last year so it will grow up and over our patio arbor. Though the fruit on this plant is marvelous in taste & color we desire the plant to grow up & over the arbor. Can you inform us as to the best methods for growing a grapevine up & over?? We're not certain as how to prune it or keep it...many questions with this new idea! thanks kindly! rk

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 07/15/2014 - 09:45

Yes, here is a helpful reference article on how to grow grapes on an arbor:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/fact-sheets/grape-arbors/

Good luck!

Darrin J D Wed, 07/09/2014 - 19:40

I was searching for an idea on harvest time and found this helpful article, thank you! We started with two Concord grapevines and I must say, they make for great privacy as they are mammoth. We did not get fruit the first few years then, this year, no less then 50 bushels that are doing great. What's peculiar is the fact that we live in north Texas and the heat is in the high 90's and more often 100 degrees for weeks.. We are under water restrictions due to the severe drought here and we follow the orders to water merely twice a week... These things will not stop growing! In fact, no matter what we grow, just takes off! All the type fruits and vegetables I've grown in New England for years that are harvested in the fall have an additional 2-3 months of high heat grow time... Does this make any sense? I also wonder, can, and should I, prune back my out of control grapevines though I do so in early spring or should I keep retraining them and wait?

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 07/10/2014 - 09:40

Enjoy your bounty and take adventage of the warmer weather to grow varieties that love the heat.

The grapes will benefit from pruning in early spring.

Betsy Burnett Sat, 06/28/2014 - 13:18

I planted a concord grapevine about 4years ago, get lots of flowers. but no grapes, any suggestions as to why this happens???

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How to Grow Grapes: Planting, Pruning, and Harvesting Tips