On your fruit & veg plot
Some simple steps will boost your harvests of these juicy fruits
Grapevines in the garden can have many uses. Their vigorous growth is useful for screening and to cloak pergolas, providing some welcome summer shade. In this situation they need little care apart from winter pruning to control their growth and some summer pruning to keep them tidy.
But if the aim is to pick ripe fruits, then regular pruning and care is essential.
Vines put lots of energ y into masses of foliage and this needs to be controlled. If allowed to grow unchecked, the mass of leaves will create humid conditions that can lead to fungal diseases and shade the fruit, delaying ripening.
Vines are also hungr y plants and regular watering and feeding are essential, especially if they are grown in a greenhouse or polytunnel – a good plan if you want ripe fruit fit for dessert use.
The simplest job is to restrict the new shoots’ length. Allow only one bunch of flowers, and thus fruits, per new shoot, then count two leaves beyond the bunch of flowers and cut the stem just after the second leaf. This allows enough foliage to feed the plant and ‘draw sap’ to the bunch. A few weeks after you do this, sideshoots will appear and these are treated the same way, cutting them back to two leaves as soon as they are large enough to handle.
TOP TIPS
Trim your salad leaves
The key to cut-and-come-again salads is to pick little and often, which prevents the plants ma
