So can grapes be grown outside in the north of England or in Scotland. You bet they can Obviously the further north the less realistic chance of ripening later ripening varieties but that doesn't mean you can't grow some truly excellent grapes even in scotland.
The first point to mention is that the more shelter you can offer to the vines the greater your chance of success. There are commercial vineyards in Yorkshire and Lancashire growing grapes and making wine in open vineyards. Just think what you can achieve at home even further north.
So what varieties will give northern english and scottish gardeners the best chance of quality grapes. The UK big four - Rondo, Solaris, Madeleine Angevine, and Siegerrebe are always the first to be recommended, especially for wine.
But there are plenty of other varieties, particularly for those who want eating grapes, including Queen Of Esther, Gagarin Blue, Agat Donski and one even for the far north of scotland, Hasanky Sladky (also known as Baltica). You can even grow seedless grapes. Somerset Seedless is the one recommended for short growing seasons. It has an excellent flavour too.
Excellent grapes are being grown in scandinavia, places like Finland, Sweden and Denmark, that share a similar climate to scotland and the north of england. You just need to choose the right variety.
Have a look at these links for some inspiration of how it is possible to get quality grapes in the north. Don't be put off by eastern european varieties. They are bred for northern climates like ours.
http://kyttalanviinitila.com/english/varieties.shtml
http://home.online.no/~l-bentel/Sorter-eng.html
I'm experimenting with Korinka Russkaja, a seedless, early ripening table grape.
ReplyDeleteI still have Muller Thurgau, that should fruit this year. I also have a obscure labrusca variety that is supposed to be a good table grape, I might try and cross it with KR to get a larger grape - hopefully early ripening, vinifera table grape flavour but with the larger size of labrusca varieties. It may take quite a bit of selection, but I have to get them to produce first.
I'm not convinced that labrusca ripens well in this country beyond the south, I think its future here is crossed with amurensis / vinifera crosses to give it earlier ripening.