How To Keep Your Grapevines Alive Through The Winter
After my grapes went through their first winter, I wasn’t sure they had survived. Well, after my fruit trees had all budded out and leaves were appearing, my grapes still hadn’t shown any signs of life. I began to suspect the Alberta winter had killed them.
However, eventually, a couple of the stems on my Valiant grapevine began to sprout out some leaves. Then along came my Prairie Star not long after. But my Kay Gray didn’t seem like it had any life at all. I was just about to uproot the lifeless stick when a little bud appeared just at the base of the plant.
At the end of the day, all three grapevines made a full recovery, but at least 80% of last year’s growth was winter killed. Because of that, there was no fruit to be had that year.
So let me share with you some of the lesson’s I’ve learned.
What Didn’t Work
Since my grapes were inside a cold frame, I thought that protection from the wind would help protect the plant through the winter. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake for two reasons.
- The plant had no protection from the severely cold temperatures (even without the wind there were days as cold as -35 degrees Celsius.) The coldframe kept the layers of insulation snow from doing any insulating.
- The greenhouse would warm up to plus temperatures in the sun, only to drop below freezing again at night. Plants don’t enjoy that.
What I’ve Done Now
This year I’ve tried something different. After the grapevines had lost all their leaves, I dismantled the greenhouse (since I’m building a new one this spring) and pruned the vines.
Once the grapes had been pruned (and some strawberries transplanted around the base – though that isn’t important to this discussion), I carefully laid down the grapevines on the ground. Then, after removing the trellis, I covered the whole lot in some old hay. It looks deeper than it would need to be because some the branches were a little stiff to try to lay flat without breaking them, so I stuffed straw underneath and over top.
One of my concerns at first was whether or not the wind would blow the hay away. But here it is in mid January and we’ve had some good winds blow through (70 – 90 kms per hour last week) and the pile is still there – not all over my driveway.
Once spring rolls around, I’ll peel back the hay (use it for mulch elsewhere) and see if my theories worked.
If you’ve had any experience in this area, I’d love to hear from you. What have you done? How has it worked? Lemme know!
January 28th, 2008 at 4:53 am
This was an interesting post – I don’t grow grapevines, but my dad does at the lake. I will ask him what he does to over-winter them. They produce copious quantities of grapes, most of which my mum takes away to make grape jelly and juice. I want to try making wine from them, although that would mean harvesting the grapes before my mum got to them.
January 28th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Thanks for your comments. I’d sure be interested to know how your dad over-winters his grapes. This is in Saskachewan, I presume?
February 13th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Good for you for trying…I have no suggestions…but I will follow this as it would be great to try some grapes!!!
Good Luck!
Jennifer
April 10th, 2008 at 1:22 am
I have Valiant vines that I cloned from some plants at my work. I took them from plants in Southern Alberta that had never produced fruit and planted them in my yard in SouthEastern Alberta where chinooks aren’t quite as prevalent. I don’t do anything special to over winter them other than make sure they are well watered after I have picked off all the fruit in late Sept early October. The only mulch they get is from the dogwood and cotoeaster hedges that drop their leaves. Last summer was an exceptional year and they produced about 4 – 4L pails of fruit which I juiced and made jelly from. I am trying 3 new varieties this summer in my test orchard which is also well sheltered but not as much as the existing vines, we’ll see how they do.
I’ll let ya know
Barb
April 10th, 2008 at 3:28 am
Cool – thanks for the info. Was that 4 pails from one vine or a few? And how long ago did you plant them?
April 12th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
4 pails from 4 vines, that was their third year, they produced the year before as well but only half that much. As I learn more they seem to produce more, it will be interesting to see what the other varieties do as well. I bought some Concord vines at Walmart the other day, we’ll see how they do!!
September 1st, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Can you give us an update on your grapes this year?
September 7th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Super-duper slow. I was sure they had all died, but about mid summer I saw some green stuff popping up. I think our spring was just too cold – not enough heat to accomplish anything. Anyone else get any grapes growing in the central Alberta area this year?
September 27th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Hi Alex
All of the grape vines I planted this spring are growing like crazy. The 4 year old Valients have alot of ripe grapes on them at the moment but not as many as last year, just not enough heat this season. I’ll still get quite a few pints of jelly but will have to be stingy about who I give it to!! I am going to mulch the more tender grape plants with peatmoss once we get a killing frost and some consistently cooler days (and nights). I haven’t taken the Valient grapes off the vine yet, they are much sweeter after they’ve had a killing frost.
May 13th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Hello, When I lived in Kamloops, I grew grapes like mad then I moved to Edmonton and tried again, the first year was like yours..are you alive?? then in late late June I saw my first shoot. The next fall I built a chicken wire “cage” and AFTER a couple of killing frosts- I pruned them a bit and laid down their trellises, put newspaper inside against the upright wire walls for the bottom 1 foot. against the chicken wire to hold in the peat moss, just one sheet so it doesnt block all the air, and once everything compacts it doesnt fall out so, you dont need it anymore. Then I Threw in lots of peat moss for 2 grapes planted 3 feet apart, I broke apart and used a large bale, dry and covered the plants. Then threw in leaves etc, to fill it up to the top of the 3″ chicken wire. Early the next spring, I removed the front of the wire cage, and took out all the insulators but left about 2 inches of peat moss right up againt the stem. I did not stand the trellises until after the June 1, so past any frost dates..I had very very little pruning of dead anything, just a few tips of vines..We had a few hard frosts after it was renmoved, but that spring, by the fist of JUne my vines were obviously growing well and I had alot of grapes, It has worked every year since.
May 13th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Thanks for the detailed info, Teresa! I’m going to have to try that myself this fall.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Thanks Teresa!! I was sure I could not keep grapes in central alberta!! Ill be trying them out next year!!
February 24th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
this is my second year trying to grow grapes in ireland i covered them with frost covers and let them in the greenhouse but they look dead.
when should i espect to see any sign of growth and help what do ever i would be greatful thanks