Grape

A grape vine left to its own devices will cover a fence, climb a tree, and produce impressive amounts of foliage — and almost no fruit. Grapes fruit on one-year-old wood, which means that every spring you need to cut away most of what grew the previous season. Most home gardeners underprune for the first few years, leaving too many buds, and wonder why the vine looks healthy but the clusters are sparse and small. The difference between a vine that produces shade and a vine that produces fruit is about sixty percent of the previous year's growth, removed in March.

Variety choice matters more for grapes than for most crops because the disease tolerance and cold hardiness vary wildly. American types — Concord, Reliance, Niagara — tend to be hardy to zone 4, reasonably resistant to fungal diseases, and carry that distinctive foxy flavor that some people love and others find off-putting. French-American hybrids like Marquette and Frontenac were bred for wine production in cold climates; they're less hardy than pure American types but more refined in flavor. Vinifera grapes — Chardonnay, Cabernet, the grapes of European wine regions — have the best flavor but are disease-prone, cold-sensitive, and generally a losing proposition outside of California, the Pacific Northwest, or zone 7 and warmer with careful site selection.

The two pests that show up everywhere are Japanese beetles and black rot. Japanese beetles can defoliate a vine in a few days if the population is high; handpicking works on a single vine, but traps tend to draw more beetles than they catch. Black rot is a fungal disease that causes dark, mummified fruit and brown leaf spots with concentric rings; it spreads in warm, humid weather and is nearly impossible to control without fungicide once it takes hold. Removing all mummified fruit in fall and spacing vines for good airflow tend to reduce pressure the following season.

Trellising is not optional. A grape vine needs a strong, permanent structure — either a two-wire trellis with wires at three and five feet, or an arbor if you want the ornamental effect. The vine will produce canes ten or fifteen feet long in a season; without a trellis to train them onto, they'll sprawl on the ground, rot, and invite disease. Set posts before you plant, and plan for the vine to live twenty years or more in the same spot.

Expect little to no fruit in the first year, a few small clusters in the second, and a real crop starting in year three. Grapes are a patience crop. The first two years are about building root mass and training the main trunk and cordons; the fruit comes later. A vine pruned hard in the dormant season, trained to a trellis, and given full sun will eventually produce more fruit than most home gardeners know what to do with — but not in the first season, and not without cutting away most of what grew the year before.