Grapes (Vitis vinifera) can be grown outdoors in most of the UK and northern Europe, but only with a variety that ripens before the season runs out. The choice of variety decides more than soil, feed and watering put together. After that the crop comes down to two skills: pruning and thinning the bunches.
The variety decides whether the grapes ripen
A vine sets fruit wherever it stands. The question is whether the berries turn sweet before the frosts. Picking falls between late August and early October depending on variety, so read the ripening time before you read the colour.
| Variety | Colour | Seeds | Ripening | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliance | red | seedless | early | The RHS recommends it for cool sites. |
| Siegerrebe | pink red | seeded | very early | Gives white wine despite the pink red berries. Draws wasps. |
| Cabernet Cortis | blue black | seeded | early | Wine variety, tolerant of fungal disease. |
| Lakemont | pale green | seedless | end of September | Sweet muscat note, needs your warmest spot. |
| Phoenix | yellow white | seeded | late in September | Resistant to powdery mildew. |
| Bianca | white | seeded | mid season | Tolerant of powdery mildew, downy mildew and grey mould. Breaks bud late and copes with spring frost. |
Seedless varieties are rarer among the early ones, but they exist. Sovereign Coronation is seedless, dark blue purple and sweet with a muscat note, and Himrod is sold as an outdoor vine. Among the wine varieties, Solaris is grown in cool climate vineyards. Choose on ripening time first, colour second.
Site, soil and planting
Grapes want full sun, and that is as much about heat as about light. A south facing wall of stone, brick or concrete takes up sun heat during the day and gives it off at night. That holds the temperature up around the bunches through exactly those weeks in September when ripening is decided. Avoid frost pockets, where a late spring frost knocks out the new shoots.
Planting time: November to early March, outdoors preferably early spring.
Distance from the wall: at least 20 cm out from the footing. The ground at a house wall sits in rain shadow and needs watering even after rain.
Spacing between plants: 1.2 to 1.5 m between vines, 1.5 to 1.8 m between rows.
Soil and pots: free draining and never waterlogged, with a pH between 6.5 and 7. In a pot, at least 30 cm wide and deep.
Mulch: 5 to 7.5 cm of compost in late winter, not against the stem.
The support has to be up at planting. The measurements for wires, battens and the air gap to the wall are in the article on building a trellis. The vine will not fill the area until the third year, so use the other end of the trellis in the meantime for sweet pea seeds.
The vine fruits on new shoots from last year's wood
The grapes sit on this year's shoots, and this year's shoots grow from buds on wood formed last season. Wood two years old or older carries nothing. That is why 80 to 90 per cent of last year's growth comes off every winter, leaving a table grape with 40 to 60 buds and a wine variety with 20 to 30. Pruning keeps a few one year old canes that carry this year's crop and produce the new shoots that take over next year. You are removing considerably more wood than when you prune an apple tree.
Guyot with a fruiting cane and a replacement spur
Guyot suits outdoor growing best. Single Guyot has one fruiting cane and is planted 65 to 100 cm apart. Double Guyot has two and is planted 1.2 to 1.5 m apart.
The wires: the lowest 50 to 80 cm above the ground, the next 15 to 20 cm above that, and then a wire every 30 to 40 cm.
The fruiting cane: bend down a one year old cane, tie it horizontally along the bottom wire and shorten it to 60 to 90 cm. The horizontal position breaks the pull of the tip so the buds break evenly along the whole arm.
The replacement spur: cut the central shoot back to three strong buds, or two on single Guyot. Next year's fruiting canes grow from them.
Through the summer: train the shoots from the arm vertically upwards with 15 cm between them, stop them three leaves above the top wire and cut the side shoots back to one leaf.
Next winter: cut away the whole arm that has fruited, bend down a shoot from the replacement spur in its place and cut the central shoot back to three buds again.
Against a wall a cordon works too, with a permanent stem carrying fruiting spurs every 25 to 30 cm, cut back to one strong bud each winter.
Prune in December, not in spring
Prune when the vine is fully dormant, from late November into December. From January the sap starts to rise, and a cut made then bleeds heavily. The bleeding cannot be stopped. It stops only once the vine has started into growth, and the plant is weakened in the meantime.
The exception is sites with late spring frost, where pruning can be put off to March or early April to hold the buds asleep for longer. You then have to accept the loss of sap. Summer stopping and cutting back of side shoots is a different job and runs from June to August.
Thinning the bunches separates sweet grapes from sour
A vine can only ripen a limited number of bunches. Let it keep every one it sets and the sugar does not go round, and you stand there in October with sour berries.
Years 1 and 2: remove every flower bunch. The vine is building root and wood.
Years 3 and 4: leave at most 3 bunches in the third year and about 5 in the fourth.
Year 5 onwards: a full crop, but one bunch per fruiting shoot for table grapes. With the shoots 15 cm apart that comes to 6 to 7 bunches per metre of fruiting cane. Wine varieties take more.
Inside the bunch: take out roughly every third berry with narrow scissors while the berries are small, and go through the bunch once more when they have grown.
The berries left behind grow larger and ripen more evenly, and air gets into the bunch. A tightly packed bunch never dries out inside, and where one berry starts to mould the neighbours follow. In September you also pull off the leaves closest to the bunches so the sun reaches them.
Greenhouse or outdoors
In a greenhouse even varieties that never finish outdoors will ripen. The standard solution is to plant the vine outside the greenhouse and lead the stem in through an opening at ground level, so the root sits in open soil. Standing in the greenhouse bed it needs water every 7 to 10 days. Keep at least 1 m between plants and give a potassium rich liquid feed every second week until the grapes start to colour.
Keep the vents open through summer and autumn. The vine wants dry moving air, while cucumber and melon do better in damper greenhouse air. If they share the space, ventilation is what should decide, or the mildew arrives.
Powdery mildew, grey mould and wasps
Powdery and downy mildew: both are favoured by still, damp air. An open plant, leaf removal in September and a variety like Phoenix do more good than treating after the event.
Grey mould in tight bunches: thinning the bunch is the answer, not a spray.
Wasps: they go for sweet and split berries from late August. Pick off damaged berries and put fabric bags over the bunches you want to keep.
Birds: cover with netting held 15 to 20 cm above the grapes, or they pick straight through the mesh.
Pale leaves: more often a nutrient shortage than a disease. More symptoms are covered in the run through of pests and diseases.
Harvest
Grapes do not ripen further after picking, so colour is a poor guide and taste a good one. A white variety is ready when the berries have turned translucent yellow, the skin thinner and the berry soft and sweet. Taste at the far end of the bunch, where the berry ripens last.
Cut the whole bunch with a piece of the stalk left on. We at Florea do the first berry thinning at the end of June, when the berries are the size of peas. No other job shows up as clearly in the autumn flavour.
Author: Emma Vogiatzi
Fact-checked by Erik Hoekstra
Last updated 2026-09-03