How to Plant a Grape Vine: Spacing, Soil and the First Two Years

Plant while the vine is dormant

Grapes go in bare or potted during dormancy, from leaf fall until the buds begin to swell. In mild gardens autumn planting is best: the roots move at soil temperatures down to about 45F (7C), so the vine spends the winter putting out root before it has any leaves to support. Where the ground freezes hard, wait until the soil can be worked in early spring and plant then.

Do not plant a vine in full leaf in summer unless you have no choice. Grape roots are coarse and few, and a vine that loses roots while it is transpiring will drop leaves and sulk for a season. If a potted vine has to go in during growth, keep the rootball whole, shade it for two weeks, and cut the top back by half.

If the vine arrived and the ground is frozen, heel it into a box of damp compost in a cold shed rather than potting it up warm. Warmth wakes the buds while the roots are still unable to work.

Sun, drainage and the wall behind

Grapes need full sun to ripen: at least seven hours of direct light, and the more late-afternoon sun the better, because sugar accumulates fastest in warm afternoons. A vine in half shade will grow enormous canes and produce sour fruit, which is the single most common reason home-grown grapes disappoint.

Drainage matters more than fertility. Vines root four to six feet (1.2 to 1.8 m) down where they can, and they will not tolerate waterlogging at any depth. If your soil sits wet after rain, build a ridge eight to twelve inches (20 to 30 cm) high and plant on top of it rather than trying to improve a hole.

A south- or west-facing wall or fence adds real heat. The stored warmth in the masonry raises night temperatures during ripening, which is exactly when a marginal climate falls short. Set the vine 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) out from the wall so the roots reach soil that actually gets rained on.

Spacing and the trellis go in first

Decide the training system before you dig, because the spacing follows from it. A vine trained to two permanent arms with spurs wants six to eight feet (1.8 to 2.4 m) of wire to itself. A vine renewed on long canes every winter needs eight to ten feet (2.4 to 3 m). Cramming vines closer does not give you more fruit; it gives you shaded leaves and mildew.

Build the trellis now. Retrofitting posts around a three-year-old vine means cutting roots and working around trained wood. Two end posts sunk two feet (60 cm) deep and braced, with wires at 30 inches (75 cm) and 60 inches (150 cm), will carry a mature vine for decades.

Putting the vine in the ground

The planting hole is about giving the coarse roots room to spread sideways, not about creating a rich pocket. Heavily enriched holes in heavy soil act as sumps and the vine drowns. Backfill with the soil that came out, loosened, and put the compost on the surface as mulch instead.

1. Dig wide, not deep Take out a hole 18 inches (45 cm) across and just deep enough that the roots sit at their old depth. Loosen the sides with a fork so roots are not trapped in a glazed pit.
2. Trim broken roots Cut back any snapped or blackened root to clean white tissue. Spread the remaining roots out flat in the hole rather than coiling them round to fit.
3. Set the graft union high If the vine is grafted, keep the swollen union at least two inches (5 cm) above the finished soil level. Buried, it roots from above the graft and the rootstock stops doing its job.
4. Backfill and firm in stages Add soil in two or three lifts, firming each with your heel around the outside of the root spread. Air pockets left against the roots dry them out over winter.
5. Water once, thoroughly Give three to four gallons (12 to 15 liters) slowly to settle the soil. Do not water again until growth starts unless the winter is unusually dry.
6. Cut the top back hard Prune the new vine to two or three buds above the union. It looks brutal, but it forces one strong trunk shoot instead of several weak ones.

Mulch two to three inches (5 to 8 cm) deep over the root area but keep it three inches clear of the trunk itself. Mulch piled against young bark holds damp and invites rot at the collar.

The first two years: build a trunk, not a crop

In year one you are growing a trunk. Let the buds break, then choose the single strongest shoot and rub the others off. Tie that shoot loosely to a cane and keep it going straight up. Remove any flower clusters that appear; a first-year vine that fruits will make a thin trunk and take an extra two years to catch up.

In year two, cut the trunk back to just below the wire height in late winter and let two shoots run out along the wire in opposite directions. These become the permanent arms. Again remove most flower clusters, though you can leave two or three bunches on a genuinely vigorous vine as a taste test. Real cropping starts in year three.

What to write down at planting

Note the planting date, which position on the trellis each vine occupies, whether it is grafted, and how many buds you cut it back to. Grape vines look identical after a few years and the record is the only way to know which vine is which when one of them starts behaving differently.

Add the date of bud break each spring from year one. Bud break for a given site shifts by a couple of weeks year to year, and once you have three seasons of it you can predict frost risk, spray timing and roughly when the fruit will be ready, all from that one date.