garden
Vines
Single cordon vines
Plant your vine outside the tunnel and train the vine through the plastic (or a hole in the greenhouse glass) to the inside. Allow it to grow unhindered.
The soil should be well dug and mixed with plenty of well-rotted manure and compost. Traditionally vines were planted above a rotting dead sheep.
Stake the vine outside and attach a wire to a frame indoors, along which you will train the plant.
In the summer of the first year allow the plant to grow, and pinch back any lateral shoots to around five leaves.
When the leaves have fallen off in the winter, cut back the main shoot by just a little more than half and cut the laterals to a single bud each.
The following summer treat the plant like you did the previous summer; tie in the main shoot and build your frame of wires. Take out any flowers that form.
The following winter cut the main shoot back to old wood and the laterals to a strong bud each.So in effect you have strengthened and prepared your plant ready for producing laterals that you will now tie in the following spring and summer.
The buds will then grow out, and the resultant growth is trained along the wires.
The third summer allow one bunch of grapes per lateral shoot to form, and any sub-laterals that form keep to a single leaf. In the winter, when the grapes are taken and the leaves have fallen, cut the laterals to two buds. It is these buds you will use next year and so on.
Grapes grow best in areas where the spring is dry, the summer is hot and the winter is cold. In our recent past spring is damp, the summer is flooded and the winter is mild, but with a little shelter there’s no reason why this vigorous climbing plant can’t be grown with great success.