# Not producing grapes after 7 years.



## RoyS (Jul 20, 2013)

Hello to all of you. This is my first post to this site. I am asking this question for my brother n law. His daughter brought home some starts about 6-7 years ago from either a school or a 4H program. 

They were planted and have grown quite well but have not produced the first grape. It seems like every year they produce what I call clusters where it looks like it will produce. We don't know if it is aborting the clusters or what the issue is. He has not touched it since he planted it. What can be causing this. Thanks for any information you can provide. I should also add that we do not know what type of grape these are and we also live in mid state Illinois.


----------



## grapeman (Jul 20, 2013)

The grapes are probably getting black rot and so never produce grapes. If they get infected right at bloom, you never really see any grapes even though they bloomed. He really needs a spray program or may never get any grapes.


----------



## skyrat (Jul 20, 2013)

You are likely to get a lot of different responses to this one but the 1st basic question that needs to be asked.....

Are they pruning it? 

A grape vine left un-pruned wants to grow vine and will abort grapes for the most part ( variety dependent to extent).

More to follow I'm sure. Tag.


----------



## RoyS (Jul 20, 2013)

I am sure he has not pruned it ever. I am sure it could depend on the variety but the grapes at my house have not been pruned for as long as I have owned the property and they still produce. I am new to growing grapes or any other type of fruit for that matter and know there is a method to follow. His vines are in better shape than mine and his doesn't produce. 

I will need to learn how to prune them and care for my own but I will research that here first before asking to many questions. My brother n law was just saying something about it the other day and thought I would try to learn a little bit about it.


----------



## skyrat (Jul 20, 2013)

I have cultivated as well as wild grapes on my place. The wild ones never produce and are never pruned so that is where I was coming from with that. 

Conversely, a relative has rows of wild grapes that produce some years. Some years not....And those are never pruned. 

One of the steps in deciding how / when to prune is knowing what variety you are dealing with. If you could provide the variety I'm sure there are plenty of folks who can help with your dilemma. 

Grapemans point may be more to the issue. I have not experienced black rot that stops the grapes from even beginning to form. I have seen it midway through the growing season only.


----------



## spaniel (Jul 20, 2013)

When i press my grapes for wine, I spread the seeds along an 8ft fence on my property. So I have some vines there which are at least 3 years old that came up from seed; they are up 6-7 feet on the fence now but I have never found the time to prune them.

So, these vines are the same variety I have in my vineyard. But, never being prunes, they have never produced grapes.

It is possible that they get black rot as indicated. It is also possible that, never being pruned, you're not going to get a crop. 

When I first started growing grapes, it just felt wrong to cut off ~80% of the plant every year and burn it. But, this is what stimulates them to produce a crop.


----------



## bigdrums2 (Jul 20, 2013)

Excess nitrogen, not enough boron might be a problem as well. Also, if the vine is in a shady spot it might not produce fruit bearing buds.


----------



## RoyS (Jul 21, 2013)

How do I go about telling what variety of grape or vine he has? Is there a source somewhere that I can visually look at then compare to what his leaves or something looks like. I am all new to this so please bear with me here. Thanks again for all the replies.


----------



## bigdrums2 (Jul 21, 2013)

Google what the leaves look like an that can narrow the search. Unfortunately you won't really know until it produces grapes.


----------



## BobR (Jul 22, 2013)

Hi from Central Illinois RoyS! As you can see, it's hard to guess what's wrong with the grapes just by posting the problem on any site. Photos of the grapes and the area that they are planted in would be of some help. I don't know what area of mid-state Illinois you are located, but you might go by your local University of Illinois extension office and ask them. They might be able to direct you to a local grape grower, or viticulturist that might be able to help out and maybe even stop by and look at the plant. I'm in an area where I'm close to the extension office in Springfield and Lincoln. The "grapeman" with all of his expertise is usually right on with his advice. If nothing else, you might contact the school district and ask if anyone remembers what they gave out. They still might have that program in place. My daughter teaches in a rural school district and they would give out a tree (seedling) to each of the kids to take home every spring. Here is the U of I extension office website.

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/findoffice.html


----------



## skyrat (Jul 25, 2013)

RoyS. If you could post some pics like BobR suggests maybe someone can help further. 

As they say.....A Picture is worth a thousand words.


----------

