Are you one of those home gardeners that don't know the three stumbling blocks to successfully growing grapes in your backyard? Don't worry, you're not alone.
I have grown grapes successfully under the worst of conditions since 1975 and I can tell you that most of the problems gardeners encounter are because they don't understand the nature of the beast that they are growing. So let's look at the problems that I see when people, like you, have me come and analyze what problems they are having growing the backyard grapevine.
The first problem I see is that gardeners want to grow some grapes but they are unaware of the variety they are growing and its growth habit. This leads to many problems from the get go. Each variety has to be treated as an individual. The most common varieties in local nurseries are either Concord types or the European vinifera grape.
