Focus on... Dessert grapes

It's easy to grow delicious dessert grapes that are brimming with vigour and vitality. All you need is the right soil and a sunny garden spot or greenhouse

- Lucy Chamberlain

PRODUCING delicious homegrown table grapes sounds like the height of decadence, but is it possible? If you grow the right variety and you practise sound growing techniques, then the answer will be ‘yes’.

For the past six years, I have been curator of two mature dessert vines in a vast Victorian lean-to greenhouse: what a treat! That said, there have been pitfalls and lessons learnt as well as triumphs. Let me share them.

The roots are planted outside, then the stem is trained inside – this gives far easier maintenance than if they were totally under glass (even though that might give earlier harvests due to warm roots). I simply top up gaps in rainfall via a good soak with the hosepipe.

Both grapes are trained using the ‘rod-and-spur’ system. Around four rods per plant run permanently along the top of the greenhouse and off these, annual shoots arise via short, woody spurs. The annual shoots are simply pruned back every November.

Just desserts

My key annual maintenance tasks really do work (see my checklist on page 20). The varieties I grow are ‘Black Hamburg’ (seeded and needs thinning, would work in a sheltered sunny spot outdoors) and ‘Muscat of Alexandria’ (seeded and doesn’t need thinning, but does need a warm greenhouse). Most folk prefer seedless types these days but bear in mind that these prefer a glasshouse.