Can You Grow Grapes In A Greenhouse? Yes, And Here’s How

Grapes are a tasty fruit that you can grow in many different places, including inside greenhouses. Even though a lot of us think of grapes as something that grow in outdoor vineyards, having them in a greenhouse comes with lots of perks like keeping them safe from bad weather, bugs, and sicknesses.

When you grow grapes in a greenhouse, they can give you more fruit that is even better quality because you can control the conditions they grow in. We’ll talk about the good things about using a greenhouse for your grapes and give you advice on how to make sure your grapes do well in a greenhouse.

Is It Possible To Grow Grapes In A Greenhouse?

Yes, it’s definitely possible to grow grapes inside a greenhouse. Doing this can give you a lot of good things like keeping the grapes safe from animals and bad weather, making your growing season longer, and letting you control the environment your grapes grow in better.

Reasons To Grow Grapes In A Greenhouse

Putting grapevines in a greenhouse rather than outside can offer lots of nice benefits. Here are a few things you might like about greenhouse grape growing:

Weather Protection

Grapes don’t do well with very cold or very hot temperatures. If you grow them in a greenhouse, they stay in a steady, safe place that keeps them from getting hurt by weather that’s too intense, which can mess with their growth and how good the fruit turns out.

Safety From Bugs And Sickness

Growing grapes in a greenhouse also means you can keep them away from bugs and plant diseases that can wreck your crop when they’re outside. If you can keep the bugs and sickness out, your grapes will have a better chance of staying safe and growing well.

Control Over Growing Conditions

In a greenhouse, you get to decide what the temperature, moisture, and light are like, and these things can help your grapevines grow faster, give you more grapes, and make your fruit taste even better.

More Fruit That Tastes Great

Grapes that you grow in a greenhouse usually give you more and tastier fruit than those that grow outside. When the conditions they grow in are just right and stay the same, the plants are healthier, and their grapes are really yummy.

Choosing The Right Grapes For Your Greenhouse

Picking the best grape types for growing in a greenhouse is very important. Here are some kinds of grapes that are known to do well in greenhouse conditions:

• Black Hamburgh: This grape is liked a lot for greenhouse growing. Black Hamburgh makes sweet, juicy grapes that taste great and aren’t too hard to take care of, plus it’s pretty tough.
• Muscat of Alexandria: This is another top pick for growing in a greenhouse because of its big, yummy grapes and sweet-smelling flowers. It grows strongly and can make a lot of fruit if the conditions are right.
• Flame Seedless: If you like grapes without seeds, try this kind. It has big, juicy grapes that are great for eating by themselves or for making juice. It’s also not too tricky to grow and doesn’t get sick easily.

When you’re looking for grape varieties for your greenhouse, think about how they grow, how much fruit they might make, if they resist diseases well, and if their fruit is of good quality. Select ones that will do well in the specific conditions of your greenhouse and match what you want to get from your grape growing.

What You Need For Growing Grapes In A Greenhouse

To make sure your grapevines do well in a greenhouse, they need the right conditions. Here’s what you need to know to make a great home for them:

Types Of Greenhouses That Are Good For Grapes

Good greenhouses for grapes can be their own building, attached to another building, or just simple cold frames. Your choice will depend on things like how much space you have, how much money you want to spend, and how many grapes you want.

The Best Temperature And Humidity For Grapes

Grapes like it when it’s warm and a bit damp, with temperatures usually between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. But, each kind of grape might need a different temperature, so make sure to choose types that fit well with what your greenhouse can do.

How Much Light Do Grapes Need?

Grapevines need lots of sunlight to grow and make grapes. If it’s wintertime and there isn’t much sun, you might need to add some extra lights to help them out.

Watering And Draining

Grapevines need to be watered often so they stay healthy. Also, it’s really important that the water can drain away well to stop the roots from rotting and to keep other problems with the soil from happening.

Soil And Food For The Vines

Grapes grow best in soil that drains well with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. During the growing season, give your vines some good fertilizer. This helps them grow strong and make lots of fruit.

Planting Grapevines In A Greenhouse

When you’re ready to plant grapes in your greenhouse, you need to pick the perfect spot and get the soil ready just right. Follow these important steps for planting your grapevines:

Getting The Planting Area Ready

Look for a spot where water drains well and there’s plenty of sun. Get the soil ready by loosening it up and mixing in some organic materials that help things grow.

How To Plant The Grapevines

You can plant grapevines straight into the ground or in big containers. If you’re putting them in the ground, make a hole deep enough for all the vine’s roots to fit.

If you’re going to grow grapes in a pot, make sure your container is big enough for the roots of the vine.

3. How to Start New Grapevines

You can start new grapevines from seeds, cuttings, or by joining them to other plants (grafting). But when you’re growing grapes in a greenhouse, cuttings are what people usually do.

4. How Much Space to Leave Between Grapevines

Leaving the right amount of space between grapevines is really important. If they’re too close together, they won’t grow as well and might not make many grapes. You should look up how far apart to plant the kind of grapes you have and train them to grow up straight to save space.

Training and Pruning Grapevines in Greenhouses

It’s very important to train and prune your grapevines. Doing this helps keep them healthy and helps them make a lot of good grapes. Here’s how to do it:

Why Training and Pruning Are Important

When you train and prune grapevines, you take off old parts that aren’t making grapes anymore and help new parts grow. This helps keep the vine healthy and the right shape.

Training is about helping the vines grow the right way, so there’s enough room and support for the grapes. It also lets more air and light reach the grapes, which can help keep diseases away and make the grapes better.

Pruning means cutting off the extra stuff so that the vine puts all its energy into making grapes, not just growing leaves and branches. It also keeps the vine from getting too big, which is especially good in a greenhouse where there isn’t a lot of room.

Overall, if you want your grapevines to stay healthy and make lots of good grapes in a greenhouse, you need to train and prune them.

What to Do to Train and Prune Grapevines Well in Greenhouses

There are some good ways to train and prune your grapevines in a greenhouse:

1. Start training early:

Begin training your vine early on to help it grow the right way and be strong enough to hold the grapes.

2. Use supports for the vine:

Grapevines need something to climb on, like trellises or wires, especially in a greenhouse where you might not have a lot of space.

Make sure to prune the grapevines often:

It’s important to prune often to keep the vine’s size in check and help it make lots of grapes. Winter is a good time to prune because the vine is sort of sleeping and won’t get hurt as much.

3. Prune with clean, sharp tools:

Always use pruning tools that are clean and sharp. This helps stop diseases from spreading and makes sure the cuts heal well.

4. Get rid of old or sick wood:

If wood is dead or looks sick, take it off to help stop diseases and to let the vine grow more new parts.

5. Don’t let the vine grow too much:

If there’s too much growth, thin it out. This helps the vine focus on making good grapes instead of just more leaves and branches.

6. Keep the vine a good size:

In a greenhouse, you don’t have a lot of room, so it’s really important to keep the vine from getting too big. Using good training and pruning can keep it the right size and help it make more grapes.

If you remember these tips, your grapevines should be happy and make lots of grapes, even inside a greenhouse.

Common Problems With Grapevines in Greenhouses

Even though greenhouses can protect grapevines from some problems, there are still bugs and diseases that you need to watch out for. Here are some that you might see:

Bugs That Bother Grapevines

1. Spider mites: These little bugs can be a real pain, sucking on the plant’s juice and hurting the leaves and grapes.
2. Thrips: They munch on the flowers, leaves, and grapes, and can give the plant viruses that are bad for how it grows and makes grapes.
3. Mealybugs: Like spider mites, they suck on the plant’s juice and can mess up the grapes and leaves.
4. Whiteflies: They hang out on the bottom of leaves, eating away and making it hard for the plant to turn sunlight into food.

To deal with these bugs in a greenhouse, keep everything clean, watch your plants for bugs, and use the right stuff to get rid of them if you need to.

Diseases That Can Hurt Grapevines

1. Powdery mildew: This fungus likes warm and damp places and can mess up the leaves, grapes, and how the plant grows.
2. Downy mildew: Another bad fungus, this one also harms the leaves and grapes.
3. Botrytis: Also known as “gray mold,” this one can hurt the grapes and make the plant not do as well.

Keeping grapevine diseases away in a greenhouse means making sure the air moves well and it’s not too damp. Also, look at your plants a lot to catch any diseases early, and use the right treatments if you have to.

Learning how to stop common pests and illnesses from harming your grapes in a greenhouse is key to keeping your plants strong and full of fruit.

Picking and Keeping Greenhouse Grapes Fresh

Once you’ve put in lots of effort to grow grapes in your greenhouse, it’s equally important to know the best way to pick and keep them fresh. This guarantees your grapes stay tasty and last longer. Below are detailed ways to harvest your greenhouse grapes and keep them fresh:

Picking Greenhouse Grapes

1. Decide on the right time to pick: The best time to pick grapes depends on what grape type you have and what you want to do with them. Most of the time, you’ll pick greenhouse grapes when they’re just right — look for the right sweetness, acidity, and a full color.
2. How to pick the grapes: You can get the grapes by picking them one by one or using a machine that picks lots at once. Picking by hand takes more time but it’s gentler, so you decide which fruit to pick. Machines are quick but might harm the grapes or vines.
3. Picking carefully: Be gentle with the grapes to avoid bruising them. It’s best to pick full clusters and snip them off cleanly with a sharp pair of pruning scissors.

How to Keep Greenhouse Grapes Fresh

1. Choosing the best place to store them: Grapes stay fresh longer in a cool, dry place where there’s no too much sun. The best temperature to keep them at is between 30-32°F with humidity between 85-90%.
2. Get them ready: Before tucking away your grapes, go through them to find and remove any that look spoiled or damaged. Then clean the good ones in cool water and pat them dry carefully.
3. Packing the grapes: Once they are dry, pack your grapes in something that lets air in, like paper or mesh bags or a plastic bag with holes in it. Don’t seal them up tight because this could make them go bad faster.
4. Cooling them down: If you’re not going to eat the grapes right away, keep them in the fridge. This way, they can stay good for up to two weeks.

Conclusion

Growing grapes in your greenhouse is rewarding, but you need to be diligent and keep up with taking care of them. If you follow the guidance shared here, you’ll have strong grapevines that give you tasty, high-quality grapes.

Always watch your plants to see how they’re doing, and tweak how you’re growing them if necessary. Keep pruning and training your vines regularly for the best results. With proper care, your greenhouse grapes will do well and you’ll get lots of fruit from them year after year.

FAQs

Can you grow grapes in a greenhouse all year?

Yes, it’s possible to grow grapes in a greenhouse all through the year, but you have to control the light, temperature, and moisture just right. Most of the time, grapevines in greenhouses give fruit once annually during the usual season.

How long until greenhouse grapes are ready?

It depends on what grape variety you have, how you’re growing them, and when you want to pick them. But usually, it takes about 2 to 3 years from when you plant your vines in the greenhouse until they start making fruit.

What temperature is best for grapes in a greenhouse?

The perfect range is somewhere between 65-75°F during daylight hours and a bit cooler at 55-65°F through the night. If the temperature goes too much above or below these numbers, the vines might not grow as well or the grapes could lose quality.

How do you keep bugs and sickness away from grapes in a greenhouse?

To keep grapevines in a greenhouse free from pests and diseases, you should always check them for signs of trouble. You can also use natural bug control like neem oil or soap made to kill insects to help keep pests away. Additionally, keep your greenhouse well-ventilated and don’t let the plants get too crowded to help stop diseases from spreading.