subject: Grape Vine Growing: Understanding the Life Cycle of Grapes [print this page] Grape Vine Growing: Understanding the Life Cycle of Grapes
Grape vine growing can be a complicated and sometimes time-consuming task. Most types of grapes will not start to yield fruit until after three years. You could choose to buy three-year-old root stock so that you would not have to wait very long, but it is still advisable to plant a one-year-old grape vine. Even though grape vine growing has a very long history, there are still many people that are not sure on how to plant a grape vine.
To understand better how to grow a grape vine, it is also important to know the life cycle of the grape growing plant. The first cycle is bud break; here, the plant is getting ready for photosynthesis. During this time, the plant can be susceptible to damage so make sure to care for it properly.
The next stage is flowering, and this happens 40 to 80 days after bud break depending on the variety of grapevine and the climate. After the flowering stage pollination and fertilization takes place; grapevines are self-pollinating.
The third cycle is the fruit set; here, all the fertilized flowers will now turn into berries and those that did not fertilize will just fall from the plant. This is a very important stage because this determines the potential harvest. Factors like weather condition and health of the plant affect yield, so make sure that the plant is in very good condition to prevent many unfertilized flowers.
More than a month after fruit sets, veraison sets in. During this cycle, the fruits will grow into their final size. This indicates the beginning of the ripening stage. The grapes will also change color and will begin to soften due to a high level of sugar. However, this does not mean that the fruits are ripe; sometimes, you need to wait 3 weeks after the coloring to make sure the fruits are ready. The gardener growing grapes for winemaking uses a refractometer to determine the sugar content of the grapes.
After harvesting, the fruits and the plant's leaves will start to turn from green to yellow. This means the plants are entering their dormancy stage. During dormancy stage, the grapevine needs to be pruned to prepare to start a new cycle.
