The first grapes I fell in love with grew next to a tiny cafe on the shore of Crete: a concrete floor, a goat standing on a chair on a table to reach the grapes over the fence, a small cup of too-sweet coffee and above us the glory of grapes, green leaves and bees sipping at the ripe black fruit.
When we got back home I planted my first grape vine and then another and another: black grapes, seedless sultana grapes, a strange pear-shaped grape I was given as a cutting from a friend.
Some years we get so many grapes I am tempted to make grape jelly — other years the birds get more grapes than we do, especially in drought years, but to be honest I think one of the great joys of growing grapes is watching the silver eyes and other tiny birds sipping at the fruit.
Tiny young grape leaves are great in salads. I pick them when they are no bigger than my fingernail, bright green and sweet and tender and toss them with other salad greens. The older grape leaves are good stuffed and simmered — I’d grow the vines for their leaves, even if I never ate a grape.
There is a grape variety for anywhere in Australia, but you must have good advice. Humid coastal areas need a grape variety that won’t get downy mildew. Hot areas have their own grape varieties, too, as do places where you need two pairs of thermals and an overcoat in winter.
Ask your local nursery what they advise, ask at your local garden club, or wander around local open gardens until you find a good strong grape vine and ask what variety it is. If you are really lucky, the owners may even offer a cutting. That’s all you really need to grow your own vine — a bit of grape wood in winter and some soil to plant it in.
And sunlight and somewhere for them to climb, of course, either up a wall, across a pergola or along a fence. I don’t bother pruning my vines except to keep them in check. Every two years or whenever I get around to it, I cut off all the stems back to the central stem (otherwise the rats build nests up in the pergola).
Grape vines have only one major problem: downy mildew. The leaves turn brown at the edges, then shrivel, and if you look closely you’ll see they have a sort of powdery look before they go brown. Downy mildew is worst in seasons that alternate hot and dry with hot and wet, or when the soil is dry but the air is humid, especially if there is long grass or a lawn under the vines.
Don’t worry about downy mildew late in the season — the vines just lose their leaves early but will come back next spring. But if your grape leaves turn mildewed early in summer, spray on top and underneath them with milk spray — one cup of milk to nine cups of water, with half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda added. Also prune off affected leaves as soon as they appear — or even affected branches — and compost them far away from the vines. There are now downy mildew resistant grape varieties.
Different grapes ripen at different times of the year. We pick ours from late January to late March. Grapes are ready about two weeks after the birds start eating them or when one in a bunch tastes sweet.
When to plant:
Grape cuttings are best planted in winter. You can poke the wood into wherever you want to grow them, or put a bundle of cuttings into a pot and separate them when they are growing strongly. It will take about six months in most places for them to develop good roots. Potted grapes can be planted at any time as long as it’s not too hot and you have enough water to keep the new planting moist.
Where to plant:
Grape vines need sunlight. They are happiest perhaps on a sunny hillside, bare and stony with no grass to make the air humid. But a vine will survive in lightly shaded soil, and grow upwards until the leaves find the light. Wild grapes are understorey plants, clambering up forest trees and domestic grapes are just as hardy — and just as determined to keep going upwards ’til they find the light they need.
Grape varieties:
There are hundreds of grape varieties available in Australia, including, many grown only for wine or dried fruit. Some of the most popular eating varieties include sultana, a firm green seedless grape that ripens about February, waltham cross, a later green seedless grape, very sweet and good; and red globe, with big reddish purple fruit in February.
But as I mentioned earlier, it is far better to find out what varieties grow well in your area. Don’t ignore the grapes with seeds in them — some of the best-flavoured grapes such as black muscats have seeds, and the seeds reportedly have a range of beneficial nutrients such as linoleic acid and antioxidants as a bonus.
You can even grow enough grapes to make your own wine in a backyard. That’s one of the joys of growing a vine that just keeps going up — you can get many square metres of grape vine in a small backyard. Most wine grapes don’t make good eating grapes, though, so make sure you choose the varieties you want.
Using vine leaves:
Take a nice young grape leaf, check for resident caterpillars and brush off beetles. Do not use leaves sprayed with pesticides or fungicides. Dip in boiling water for 10 seconds.
Now take some of last night’s leftover fried rice — or any stuffing you like — and wrap it up neatly. Put your spoonful of rice mixture in an elongated heap towards the edge of the leaf. Roll up in a sausage shape, tucking the ends in as you go to keep the whole parcel neat and tight. After you have done a couple you will develop a connoisseur’s eye for the best-shaped grape leaves (one without very deep indentations and a wilted main leaf rib so that it bends rather than breaks).
Place your stuffed vine leaves in a casserole sprinkle on a little lemon juice and olive oil and either water or chicken stock, say one lemon for every 10 leaves and the same amount of olive oil and maybe half a cup of stock; and bake for half an hour in a moderate oven. You can also cover them with a herbed tomato mixture for a change (and as your skill level rises and you want to do more and more you will be looking for variations to play on the main theme).
Your say: Have you planted grapes before? How successful were they? What are your favourite ways to enjoy grapes? Share with us at [email protected]
