The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: zoe_emma on April 19, 2013, 12:21:52 pm
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We have inherited a large grape vine in the sun room. It is planted next to a well under the floor so waters itself. When we looked at the house it was covered in bunches of grapes with mould or mildew on them. By the time we moved in the landlord had really severely cut it back and there was just a bare branch.
A few days ago I noticed the first green shoots coming through! A massive relief as I thought it had been killed off.
Do I need to treat it with anything to prevent the mould returning or will the extreme pruning have done the job?
Thanks everyone :thumbsup:
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On some grapes a slight mould is desirable, I recall
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Don't know about the mould - imagine it'll be due to air circulation around the fruit so remove leaves when they're ripening - but 'severe' pruning is the norm for grape vines. Normally left with the single short trunk and a short leader each year unless it's supposed to climb and look pretty. How is the sun room ventilated?
H
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It is ventilated mainly by just leaving the external door open all the time. It is closed at night but that's all.
I will try and photograph it, it is massive. It grows up the wall at one end, then right along the ceiling of one room, through a hole in the wall and then right along the ceiling of the second room.
There seems to be new shoots on it every day!
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It will come back strongly - the harder you prune something, the harder it comes back (if it has any vigour in it). From what I understand, it's a bit of a myth you can kill something by hard pruning - unless it's dying anyway. If it's a strong and healthy plant, the response to cutting it back will be to generate as much growth as possible. So watch is go!
Meantime, I still don't think the mould on the fruit will relate to the pruning habits. I imagine it's hard to ventilate any fruit easily inside, even with the door open. But keep your eye out for the fruit and try and cut back the leaves around it so that it gets as much air as possible.
H