Seeing any of your neighbors or friends grow their own grapes can stir up mixed reactions.
It might come to you that home grape growing is even possible, as it clearly is.
You may also wonder if it really is worth your already-limited garden space, precious time, and some serious spending.
Still, seeing these people cultivate grapes on their own and using them to make grape juice, jelly, and some home-made wine can trigger you to be jealous of them.
Green-eyed as you are, you turn your jealousy into productive action if you actually choose to grow grapes in your backyard.
Home grape growing differs from cultivating massive grape vineyards only when it comes to the availability of space.
Commercial grape vineyards have large and open landscapes to grow grapes whereas backyards will most likely have limited spaces and shaded areas because of nearby structures such as houses or buildings, trees, and bushes.
The small space of your garden should not hamper you from growing grapes in any way since you have the choice of growing just a few grapevines and properly positioning them to maximize the available space.
In essence, there are nine factors that you need to consider in home grape growing.
These factors are practically the same as with growing grapes on the farm.
They include the variety of grapes, climate, soil, spacing, watering, and fertilizing, setting up of grape vine trellises, pruning of the grape vines, and the highlight - grape harvesting.
Grape Variety Different kinds of grapes have varying uses in turn.
Basically, grapes could either be used for wines or fresh eating.
These variations are made according to the quality of the grapes and their content.
You should base your choice for home grape growing on your needs.
Choose wine grapes if you want to produce home-made wine or grow table grapes if you want them for eating or for making grape juice and jelly.
There are also a few grape varieties that could be used to make both so be careful in making your choice.
Climate Some types of grapes are more tolerant and adapted to the climate in your region than others.
Consult a nursery professional in your area to see which grapes are more likely to thrive in your backyard.
Also take in mind that grapes love to bask in the glorious heat of the sun.
The best time to grow them is early spring when temperatures are already warm enough.
Soil As for the soil, it has to be well-draining, packed with nutrients, and acidic.
The best soil types are loamy and sandy because they contain a lot of nutrients essential for grape growing.
It also has to drain well to allow water to seep through soil and not accumulate along the roots of grape vines.
Acidity between 5.
0 and 6.
5 is preferred by grapes depending on the variety.
Test your soil for its acidity and research for ingredients you can incorporate in the soil to make it acidic.
Spacing Home grape growing requires that you space grape vines at least 8 feet apart because their roots can extend up to 6 feet from the base.
Water Grapes need a lot of watering until the vines begin to bear fruit.
But as soon as the grape fruits come out, watering should be limited to once a week.
During a drought, watering may be done more often.
And just before winter, one large watering may be done to help them get through the winter.
Fertilization Regularly check the leaves of your grapevines - they must be dark green in color.
If this color fades, that's when you need to fertilize the soil.
Trellises Trellises are needed for home grape growing in the same way that they are needed on the farm.
For your backyard though, you could choose decorated ones so that they will look ornamental yet still serve the function of supporting your grape vines.
Pruning Properly pruning your grape vines will to result in a more abundant harvest which is why it must be done yearly.
Harvesting When grapes get their darkest possible color, they are already ripe enough for picking.
But you could always buy kits from garden stores to check if your home grape growing is bearing ripe fruit.