Ahh! Those endless waiting hours to see the grapes on your plant are heart-wrenching! Getting sight of the grapes needs more patience than planting a grapevine.
Sadly, the time is uncertain. It would be great if the homeowners could know precisely when they would harvest by eliminating this dilemma.
When do grape plants produce fruit?
Most often, grape plants do not produce fruits before three years. A nurturing of thirty to thirty-six months is required for harvesting. Again, this time can vary depending on the plant type and the surrounding environment. However, seeing the fruits before this time is scarce.
The grape plants that are grown from seeds usually take years. You will notice the store-brought seeds are not quickly sprouted. The reason behind this is simple – they need special attention and care.
The general rule of thumb is three years, but it can even take up to seven years to grow the grapes from the seeds. Though there are examples of grape plants blossoming with fruits from their second year, the chances of such a mind-blowing harvest are slim.
Actually, this thing does not entirely depend on the users. The weather also has its magic in this play. Therefore, expecting fruits from a grape plant before this time is not logical enough.
Despite any doubts about quality, many people want fast gardening results. For them, undoubtedly, the best solution would be to cut the propagated grape plants. Now, the world will turn upside down!
With this method, miraculously, your plants would end up having grapes in one to two weeks. As unbelievable as it sounds, it makes sense. Using multivitamins along with several propagation methods, the plants bear the fruit of your hard work.
To propagate the grape plants, effective practice of some methods – for instance, grafting, layering, and greenwood cutting – can cover the grapevines with zillions of fruits.
Things to know about grapevine fruiting
There are certain things you need to know before you plant a grape plant. Let’s get to know them.
The months of the year when grape plants produce fruit:
According to the species, different grape plants have different harvesting periods. However, grapevines commonly bear fruits from spring to fall. To put it simply, it falls between August to November.
For their effective growth, these plants require frost-free weather. Typically, they need five to six months for this process. You can guess, thus, a period of five months without snowfall is what your grapevines ask.
Even late spring freezes can be dangerously harmful to them. But why? Because it damages the new stems, and so shrinks the overall production of the fruits.
For this reason, people looking for cutting and propagation methods have the ideal time between late fall and early spring.
Frequency of grape production each year:
As the grape is only harvested seasonally, it is found that grapes are harvested worldwide. Nonetheless, the scenario for the United States is quite different.
You can find the answer with some simple calculations. Backed up by data and several research studies, it is proven that there are at least 15,000 vines in each state with nearly 1,100,000 acres of land.
Over 53% of grapevines produce fruits every year that are more than several thousand pounds. Who knew this crazy amount of grapes is grown all over the country? Seems unreal!
Amount of grapes produced from a vine each year:
The production frequency of the grapes can also be divided into two subcategories – table grapes and wine grapes. Having an uninterrupted reputation on the dining table, these grapes have an impeccable harvesting amount.
Table grapes produce literally 20 to 25 pounds of fruits each year. Yes, that’s huge. Again it is an average, the actual can be more skyrocketing.
Alternatively, fruits that grew on grape vines for wine production have less supply. Yet, it is no less than fifteen pounds.
What causes grape plants not to bear fruit?
The reason for the low fruit production from the grape plants may have myriad reasons. Studying them out can be a great plus point and help the gardeners fix the problem.
Not matured enough:
Often people count the fruits before bearing them. That practice should be avoided. Don’t expect your plants to harvest magically within an instant. Instead, give it the time of at least three years before seeing any results.
Using excess fertilizer:
Everything has a limit. The fertilizers too. A huge mistake of the gardeners is to provide superfluous nitrogen fertilizer to the plant.
Speculating it would give you fruits sooner with a high yield is mere folly. With fertilizer, you can see lush, green foliage but not a single fruit. That’s sad!
Lack of sunlight:
Sunlight is one of the practical conditions for plant growth. Without this little ingredient, the grapevines would show stunted growth.
Therefore, before anything, choose a proper place with adequate sunshine, and then there will be no scarcity of fruits.
Infestation of pests:
Pests, along with beetles and various bacteria, can hideously damage your grapes’ quality and production. Unfortunately, these pest outbreaks can not be prevented by any means.
However, you can spray insecticide or horticulture products to get rid of them. Continuous use of them can ultimately diminish their existence for good.
No pollination:
Grapevines need pollination to reproduce and for fruit formation. If your plant does not get the chance to pollinate, you’ll never see any fruit in your lifetime.
It is also notable that grape plants mainly rely on winds for pollination. So, preparing the region accordingly and checking whether it is suitable for pollination or not is needed for proper fruit blooming.
Tips for encouraging fruiting on grape plants
If you want to see fruits all over your grape plants, you must provide the extra care that encourages their growth. There are several ways in which any gardener can ensure the proper development of the fruits.
An outline will make all doubts clear. Below are some common tips that would help speed up the process of fruit formation in any grape plant.
Enough sunlight:
We all know the importance of sunlight while growing plants. Enough sunshine is needed in the area where the grape vines need to be grown.
Of course, it is impossible to control the weather. But choosing the right place where vines can be exposed to complete sunlight is something that can be controlled and guaranteed.
Optimum Temperature:
Sometimes, the sun is not enough. A combination of perfect temperature and warmth is also required.
Grape vines cannot stand harsh weather conditions like thunderstorms and snowstorms. Thus, it seems a good idea to plant them in the locality that has the most hours of warm weather.
Sufficient Water:
Water not only softens the seed coat but also plays a vital role in the growth of plants. Grape vines, like most other plants, need sufficient water to survive and provide them with the ability to grow and reproduce.
There are also effective measures that gardeners should follow. To exemplify, watering daily. Do not spray water, hand watering is what the grape vines deserve.
Soil quality:
The most preferred quality of soil is it needs to be well drained. Soils that build up moisture would be no good for your plants.
Though the grapevines can be grown in versatile types of soil, mixed with compost would trigger massive growth and fruits in a shorter time. Also, gardeners need to ensure which soil quality best suits wine and table grapes for the best results.
Perfect proportion of fertilizer:
Fertilizers are the ultimate savior for your plants. They increase the minerals and vitamins that plants need to grow. As a result, vast growth plus luscious fruits can be seen with this.
On the other hand, not using it properly can lead to severe catastrophes – like fruitless plants. It’s no joke! If you use fertilizer more than the required amount, you may see growth but no fruit at all.
This is the only reason why the experts suggest not to put fertilizer in the first year. Subsequently, give a thin layer onto the soil in the second year. And then finally, you can move to thick layers from the following years onwards.
Pruning:
While the vine is still dormant, pruning is one of the supreme procedures to encourage the growth of the plants. It is most often done in the late winter to early spring with a handful of sterilized tools.
For the first three years, you will need to cut the flowers off and prune them. Then, surely nothing would stop its fruits from emerging.
Final thoughts
So finally, to produce fruit, a grape plant may need at least three to seven years, depending on its species and several other factors. The care they get from the gardeners, coupled with the weather conditions and soil type, all do play a significant part here.