Grape - Vitis vinifera

[Tucson Grower]

I just obtained a start of seedless concord - a nice dark purple grape.

[FrostyTurnip]

BOOM SCORE!  I would seriously grow that if I lived in your clime.  I love grapes. 

when I visited the Jordan, almost every house had a well established grape vine over their courtyard.  They were sick of them, like we get against pecans in Oklahoma.  They shoved bowls-full at me.  I was not shy. 

And those were not concords. 

One time, I picked up a small box of blueberries in fancy packaging from the food bank.  Brought them home and took a gander and slipped one in my mouth.  Low and behold . . They were WINE grapes.  Outstanding flavor.  Best grapes I’ve ever had.  That’s one of those food items I wished I’d never eaten.  Never the same.  Keh

Concords are a good second! 

[heavyhitterokra]

Nice, Tucson!

I'm rootin' for ya!

I've had some variety of purple grapes here for several years, but have yet to taste one. We have Japanese Beetles here so badly every Summer that the little clusters never make it to maturity. I used to have Muscadine grapes here too, but the severe freeze of February 2021 killed every last one of those. Hopefully, you've got way better conditions where you are.

[Tucson Grower]

I'll probably do okay. There are some vineyards in this area, hopefully that's a good sign that mine might flourish. At the start I'm plannng to keep it in a 25 gallon fabric pot. All the native trees are horrible on gardens and plants planted in the ground. Even if the nearest ones are, far, far, away - their roots will steal the water and fertilizer from plants they can reach. Their roots will go incredible distances to do so, too. Heck, I've even had them do this with plants in pots. I now place barriers beneath all pots, to keep the drain holes away from contacting the ground, and it has finally been stopped, for now. I keep a careful watch, especially if I see a potted plant waning, I give it an extra careful check.

[heavyhitterokra]

Tucson,

Do you have any feed stores nearby? Here, they sell empty cattle mineral lick tubs for about $4.00 each. The tubs are made of very heavy-duty plastic and will hold about 25 gallons of water. I buy the black ones, as they seem to weather direct sunlight very well. I drill 1/2" inch drain holes in the edge, just about a 1/2" inch above the bottom of the pots to drain water. That keeps tree roots from creeping in quite so fast. I place gravel and a little charcoal in the bottom of each pot, for drainage as well. I don't know if that actually helps or not, but it makes me feel better anyway.

I place the pots below the drip line of our roof, so the drip just hits their edge. We almost always have a little morning dew drip-off, but I still have to water them regularly.

[Tucson Grower]

heavyhitterokra, I will check with my local feed stores. I hope they have those available here, too.

[amyinowasso]

We drill holes in our mineral tubs. Putting gravel in a pot is a myth, I have never understood the reasons, but I have the article, I will find it in a bit. Mineral tubs are plentiful in Oklahoma. I sure like that drip line idea, except of course, we have gutters. I have daydreamed about a dew collector for each bed. A young man in Africa has built a huge one to provide water for a whole village. Another link I'll have to find.

[amyinowasso]

I made a separate thread for the gravel issue, but here's the link to the dew harvester. When I googled this, MANY other dew harvesting options came up. Some were even DIY, so one of you handy people do the Google search and start building them!
www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-tower-pulls-drinking-water-out-of-thin-air-180950399/

PS, none of the DIY looked like this.

[Tucson Grower]

The concord (seedless) is doing okay, it sprouted and is growing right along, though no sign of flower buds, for now. I also snagged 2 Vitis vinifera 'Thompson' on clearance sale at Walmart - $5 each. They too are growing well, one even has a small cluster of flower buds. The differences in foliage, between the 'Thompson' and 'Concord' is amazing.

[Tucson Grower]

When these first formed, as the plant began to grow, I figured they were flower buds. Since I've been watching them closely I never saw them bloom, they just gradually began growing into clusters of green grapes. 

Pic of green seedless -->

[chrysanthemum]

Lovely, Tucson Grower. Thanks for the picture.