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From 1967 to 1979 I was a very, very serious home vintner in an area of Northern N.Y. where we had temps go way below zero and a accumulation of 120 inches of snow of many a winter. This was no area to grow grapes, so we had the juice trucked in from the Finger Lakes region each fall.
After we sold our B & B and campgrounds in TN we moved to KY and I decided to plant grapes only after I had an arbor built and then a pergola. My mind saw wonderful visions of hanging grapes and doing something with them.
I planted one Thompson seedless at the beginning of the big arbor and within 4 years that one grape vine was huge and all over the place with many, many clusters of grapes that one could do something with. However, along the way I became 4 years older and at 70 could not climb up to get those wonderful grapes and I could not give them away to people who said they would come and get them. Now at 73 there are still more grapes going strong from that one little $2.98 vine and each year the birds have a magnificent feast.
About 2 years after building the arbor my grandson and I built a 50 ft. long x 4 ft. wide pergola and we planted many varieties of grapes on one side of it and many antique rose bushes on the other side. The middle of the pergola had a series of benches and again I envisioned myself basking on one of these benches within all the glory of roses and grapes. Again everything did their stuff.
Now at 73 I still do not have the ambition to do anything with these grapes except paint pictures of them once in awhile and upon reflection here are some things I would change about planting grapes.
I would still build an arbor and a pergola because they are artistically appealing to me.
I would still plant grapes but they ones I wanted to get at easily and quickly regardless of my age, weight or climbing abilities would be in a small section of my garden that had about 4 to 6 ten foot rows of stakes and wires for grapes to grow on. The rows would be wide enough for me to pass through.
I would decide if I want table grapes or wine growing grapes. Wine grapes are berried, small and seedy and not suitable for eating. I would make sure I bought the vines from a reliable source that had disease free grapes for my zone which is zone 6.
I would make sure I knew about their growing seasons. Some grapes mature quickly and other grapes have growing seasons as long as 170 days.
I would make sure I knew how each variety varies in how vigorous the growth is. This trait determines the distance between vines when planted. Low vigor vines must be planted closer while high vigor vines need more space.
I would make sure I knew that grape vines need a lot of pruning and each year one must prune 75 to 90% of the vines away in order for them to maintain their maximum vigor and health and also to clear out the tangled mess that grape vines can easily acquire.
I would need to know that various vines need various styles of pruning. Varieties that bear fruit from the bottom basal buds need “spur” pruning. Not pruning will lead to disease and low yields and eventually death of the vine.
Knowing when to harvest would be essential information for a grape grower for the simple reason that simply because a grape looks ripe it may not be ripe.
Like I said these are things I would really think about if I could do it all over again. However, at my age I will simply feed the birds their feast each season and sit and bask in the pergola with my watercolor paints.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 Resources: Excerpted from “Food For Thought Series” by Arlene Wright-Correll
For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/ and click on Arlene’s Books you can download or buy my gardening & cook books. All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and we thank you for your attention to this site.
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