How to grow Grape (Outdoor)
in the UK

Grapes outside in the UK, eh? Sounds a bit fancy for an allotment, but honestly, with the right variety and a bit of proper looking after, it's totally doable. You'll be chuffed to bits when you get your first proper bunch ripening on the vine, even though they are a bit of a challenge, mind, not for the faint-hearted.

Sowing

Now, when we say "sow" for grapes, we're usually talking about planting a young vine, not sowing seeds. March or April is a cracking time to get your bare-root or container-grown vine into the ground. You want a sunny, sheltered spot, like against a south-facing wall or fence on the plot, somewhere it can really soak up the warmth, you know what I mean. Dig a good-sized hole, make sure the roots have plenty of room to spread out, and plant it at the same depth it was in the pot or where the soil mark is on a bare-root one. Give it a good water in straight away.

Growing on

Once your vine is in, the main thing is getting it trained up right. Grapes need support, proper support, like wires on a wall or a sturdy pergola. We're talking guyot or cordon training, something that lets you manage the growth and get good air circulation. Plant them about 1.5 to 2 metres apart if you're doing more than one. They'll need a bit of careful tying in as they grow, guiding those shoots along the wires as they start to put on growth.

Looking after it

Water is crucial, especially when those grapes are swelling up on the vine. Keep an eye on it, particularly in dry spells. You'll need to thin out the bunches a bit, taking off the smaller, weaker ones so the plant can put all its energy into fewer, better quality grapes. And pruning, well, that's a whole job in itself, making sure you get good fruit wood for the next year. Keep an eye out for birds and wasps as the fruit ripens, they love a sweet treat.

What goes wrong

Grapes can be a bit prone to a couple of fungal problems, like powdery mildew and downy mildew, especially if it's damp and not much air moving about. Good pruning helps with that. And like I say, birds are a proper nuisance once those grapes start to sweeten up. You might need to net the bunches or even the whole vine if they're being too greedy. Wasps can get stuck in too, so keeping an eye on ripe fruit is key.

Harvest

You'll be picking your grapes from September right through to October, depending on the weather and the variety. Look for proper colour and give one a taste; it should be sweet, not sharp. Use secateurs to snip off the whole bunch, leaving a bit of stem. Eat them fresh, of course, or if you get a proper glut, you can make juice or even try your hand at wine. They'll keep in the fridge for three to five days, easy.