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> Tue, 04/22/2014 - 08:40

This is Vitis vinifera 'Fragola.' We are not familiar with this variety in North America and it seems hard to get a hold of. It seems as if the Concord grape is close, but not quite right. Perhaps someone in our community can help!

John Dy Fri, 04/11/2014 - 08:59

I have a 5 month old grape vine, it grew from a seed that I planted on a small pot, I was wondering on how I can take care of it properly, any tips on how I can ensure that it grows healthy?

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 04/11/2014 - 10:54

If your grape vine has rooted in the pot, then you can move to a loarger pot (a gallon container) or plant the vine in the ground in the fall when the leaves drop, and water in well.

Bbbba Sun, 04/06/2014 - 04:27

I live in Rio Rancho, NM. I'm planning to plant vines. I was wandering what type of vine is the best in this kind of climate (7a hardiness zone)? Also, the soil in here is "fine sandy loam". What do I need to add to the soil to have better grapes? Thanks

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Sun, 04/06/2014 - 15:22

"Golden Muscat," "'Himrod Seedless," and "'Seneca" are some American hybrid grape varieties that seem to grow well in Zone 7 and central New Mexico.

Fine sandy loams is exactly what you want for growing grapes. The soil should be of average fertilize and drain well. If fertility is low, you can mix in some organic matter (well-rotted manure, compost, peat moss or a green manure crop).

Prepare the vineyard site a year ahead of planting to allow for soil pH adjustment, fertility-building, and eradication of weeds.

See this page for more detail: http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-309.html Contact your NM cooperative extension for local advice.

Renaldo Thu, 04/03/2014 - 16:38

Hi, I planted several table grape vines 20 years ago. Not one grape came from them over the course of two decades. This year, they are bearing out of the blue. Does anyone have an explanation for this? I've pruned over the years and they never bore. I've also fertilized to no avail. I can think of no reason why they would suddenly fruit. Thanks!

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 04/07/2014 - 09:49

As long as you were pruning and fertilizing correctly, and that the plants were getting enough sunlight etc., and were healthy, it is a mystery why no flowers would form. Incorrect pruning, or too much fertilizer, can affect blooming. Amount of full sunlight per day is also important. If plants have had any setbacks, such as diseases or pests, that can also affect blooming. If there are not enough pollinators, then you might get small fruit that shrivels. In general, sometimes if plants are under stress, they will bloom (not sure if grapes do this). Make sure that your plants are appropriate for your climate--those that are not quite hardy in your area may take longer to establish, if they survive. (Although it probably wouldn't take 20 years!) Check the health of the plants, and other conditions that may have changed. If the plants look fine, congratulations on your first crop!

Timh Fri, 03/28/2014 - 03:48

I have just moved in to a house that had old vines. They look scary and creepy like something surrounding a haunted house. How can I tell if they are alive?

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 03/28/2014 - 06:40

To see if your old grapevine is still alive, take a pocket-knife and carefully scrape back the top layer of the bark to the cambium: the thin layer beneath the bark. Do not cut any further. If the colour of the cambium is a nice green, it's alive. If it's brown, it's dead. If it's very pale green, it may be dying.

Grapevines are quite resilient. If you find it's alive, you can do some very heavy pruning. You can remove 90% of the plant and spark the vine into new growth. Grapevines are very forgiving so it is hard to mess up.

Timh Fri, 03/28/2014 - 11:56

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7lnl682z2z3qwm/2014-03-28%2008.51.55.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7lnl682z2z3qwm/2014-03-28%2008.52.12.jpg Looks like it's dead

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