This is my first post here so I'm sorry if my questions were asked and answered before, but I wasn't able to find those posts. I ordered some Concord vines from a local nursery, but I haven't received them yet. This will be my first attempt at growing my own grapes. My wife and I are planning on trying to sell our home in a few years, so I want to try and grow them in pots for a couple years. I've been able to find some info on growing potted grape vines on this forum and on other websites, but there are a couple of questions I haven't been able to find answers to. The most important is that I am completely unsure on what to do with the plants in winter. A website that let you search by ZIP code told me that where I live is a hardiness zone 5B. Winters can be very frigid here with temperatures dropping to around zero degrees F for days at a time. I have a potted rose bush that I place in my unheated, unattached garage at the beginning of every winter. I'm not exactly sure what the temperature in there is, but the plant goes completely dormant until I bring it out in the early spring. Would this be acceptable for the grape pots? What is the acceptable tempurature range for them in winter? And when should I be putting them in the garage and bringing them out from it? This next one may be a stupid question, but does the amount of sunlight they receive in winter matter? Also, I am unsure on what size pot to use and how tall of something to climb on to give each plant. Any advice anyone can give me on these questions is greatly appreciated.
You can grow them in pots indefinitely if you wish, but that will limit the size and yield potential. A 10 gallon size is a good compromise between future moveability and adequate root volume, but I would start it in a smaller (2-5 gal.) one and re-pot it next spring and after shaving off all the circling roots in the smaller pot (this will give you a more branched and stronger root system). With Concord you would be able to winter it outside in zone 5 if it is buried to the rim of the pot. That will also keep it from blowing over when it is leafed out. A 5 foot stake will be ample for the first year; you will want some kind of trellis or arbor after that. If "a couple of years" starts to stretch out, re-pot every two or three years cutting off the circling roots or plant it in the ground. Ralph
It's good to know that these plants will be able to weather a winter in this climate once they're planted. I have to say I'm honestly surprised how hardy they can be in tempuratures so low. I'm guessing that you don't recommend my garage idea for winters while they're potted. Burying the pots is an idea I've run across before online, but I'm not sure it's a path I can take. I'm hesitant to dig up my yard like that after we've got our house up for sale.
Actually the best advice I can give you is to plant and manage your garden as if you were going to stay forever and deal with a move if or when it happens. Because of the restricted root volume in a potted grape you are only going to save a couple of years by using the potted plant at your new location as opposed to a fresh start. There is also the question of whether the Concord will be the best choice at your (hypothetical) new home. Ralph
i do have some experience in the past with potted grapes in zone 5... i have kept them on the ground but have covered them with wood chips...up to a few inches over the pots.. unfortunatley potted pots tend to collect rain/snowmelt without draining and i found the pots became saturated frozen pots and many vines died... i would do the same again but cover tops of pots with plastic to shed water. before woodchipping over... i also believe a cold garage would work fine but afford water damage protection... i would keep soil moist, so that they dont dehydrate out over the winter... greg toczko
