In my yard things have to play double duty.  They need to be productive, but they also need to look pretty and add to the landscape.  I wanted to grow grapes on an overhead arbor so that when you walk under it there would be bunches of grapes hanging down inviting you to eat them.  As I looked in books and on youtube all of the examples were done in vineyards so the structure was very different from what I wanted.  I went ahead and planted my grapes and I have learned a lot of things as I have experimented with them.

I chose to plant two different varieties of seedless grapes.  One of mine is called Candice.  It is a smallish pink grape.  It’s great for eating right off the vine and making into juice.  I also use it for making fantastic raisins.  My other vine is called a Himrod.  It is a larger green grape, also great for eating and juice.  I don’t use it for raisins because it is so juicy it takes a long time to dry.

I have two different shaped arbors and they require different pruning.  In the following video I will show you what I have done and in some cases what I should have done differently.

Something I didn’t mention in my video is that major pruning should be done when the vine is dormant. I usually do it in the early spring.  Also it is ok to do a little pruning in the summer to keep your vines from taking over the world.

Overall I feel pretty good about my grape arbors.  They both look beautiful in the summer covered in leaves with masses of fruit hanging off of them.  I get enough grapes to make delicious raisins and all the grape juice we can possibly use.

Making Raisins http://itsjustaproject.com/making-raisins/

Making Grape Juice http://itsjustaproject.com/how-to-bottle-grape-juice/

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