Success.

The experiment worked, the Phoenix pot layer didn't even notice it had been severed from the parent plant. No wilting, sulking or difference in growth whatsoever so we can assume there are more than sufficient growth to sustain all the top growth it has grown throughout the season.

I moved the top growth of pot layer away from the fence as it was shading some of the ripening grapes and interfering with the Merzling vine that is planted close by. The pot itself is still in the original position so the roots are undisturbed.

Fish Out The Nets.

After spending all year tending the vines It would be dispiriting in the extreme to see your luscious crop of grapes taken by birds. Birds and wasps are the crop's main danger during the ripening process and while, because of the season we had, I don't expect to see huge numbers of wasps this year the same can't be said of birds.

Grape vines evolved for their seeds to be dispersed by birds. And as valid now as it was when grape species first emerged birds find grapes irrisestable. Birds will eat the grapes long before we humans consider them ripe.

While for some it may be a romantic notion to share some of your crop with the birds the plain fact is that birds don't share. If you want to keep your grapes for yourself, after all that is the reason we have taken such care of the vines so far, then the only effective answer is to net them.

Let's see our feathery friends get through this!

Veraison At Last.

Veraison is the french term for the onset of ripening when red grapes begin to show colour and white grapes begin to appear translucent.

Here is the first colour on one of the sparsely filled Regent clusters.

And these Brant aren't too far away. They have lost their bright green colour and are now olive green, a sure indication of verasion about to happen.

White grapes are harder to evaluate at first for veraison as the changes are more subtle than red grapes. But where the Regent leads the others are sure to follow.

Not Everything A Success.

While the Phoenix and Chardonnay vines are doing well both setting a decent crop the Regent and Madeleine Angevine are not.

Just look how sparse the Regent clusters are...

And the Madeleine Angevine are no better.

When Regent are good they are fantastic but their drawback is that they don't set fruit when the weather is wet and cold at flowering, as it was this year. This is why I wouldn't recommend it as a variety for planting in the north of the country.

Madeleine Angevine often do better at setting a decent crop in adverse conditions but this year was obviously too challenging even for this hardy lady.

Moment Of Truth.

This years experiment is pot layering a vine with the aim of getting a strong plant quickly that will come into bearing fruit far earlier than traditional hardwood cuttings.

Here it is still joined to the mother vine.......

And here is the moment of truth, the moment it begins (or fails to begin) an independent life of its own.

By separating the layer from the host plant now forces the layer to grow more of its own roots while relieving the mother vine from the job of supporting the layer so it can concentrate on ripening the crop it carries.


The victorian gardeners who perfected this method of propagation would let the layer bear grapes this year thus producing a fully fruiting potted vine in a single season.

Hanging Out With The Grapes.

As the berries get bigger they get heavier. Eventually their sheer weight causes the bunches to hang down so they begin to look more like proper bunches of grapes.

These Phoenix bunches are coming along nicely.

And the smaller clusters of Chardonnay are showing promise too.

We should begin to see the first signs of ripening over the next couple of weeks.

Rooting Cuttings - Indoors Or Outdoors.

So what is better rooting cuttings under cover (in this case a polytunel) or in the open?

Compare Auguste Louise......

Solaris....

And Glenora.... All rooted under cover.

With these Regent cuttings rooted outside.

The indoor cuttings are so much further forward. So much so a number of them may come into bearing a year or two earlier than outdoor rooted ones.

However I wouldn't recommend trying to root cuttings in pots because I tried that last year with only limited success. Better to plant them in the ground for rooting.

Strong Growth - Pinot Noir.

Imagine a Pinot Noir that can grow from this......

To this.....

With a stem as thick as this!

Such strong growth means a few bunches will be allowed to form on it next year. It is now set up as a healthy vigorous vine.

A little delving leads me to the conclusion that this plant is not the classic Pinot Noir but an early ripening form - Pinot Noir Precoce (early Pinot Noir) or Fruhburgunder as it is called in germany. Pinot Noir Precoce is widely planted in many of britain's commercial vineyards because it is a more reliable ripener than Pinot Noir.