Grape vine advice needed

[USINSPAIN]

i have a grape vine never done much in the past because I did not know what it needed want to look after it this year it has just started to have very tiny grapes appearing what is the best way forward from now
Than you

[Mariacristina]

You ideally need advice from someone living in your area and with similar conditions. Look around locally and ask; people like being asked for advice!

Meantime . . . there is not much you can do at this time of the year. The one important thing is to keep the vine watered and thin out the forming bunches of grapes. You will do better to have 20 good bunches than 100 thin wasp-infested bunches, especially as we are all trying to give away surplus grapes at the same time. I snip off some of the forming bunches every week at this time of the year.

A little (very little) judicious pruning helps too, as vines are as useful for shade as they are for grapes. They need to be encouraged to spread out where you want them.

Major pruning in my area is done in November but a friend who lives near the coast does hers in February.

I am going to try covering some of my bunches of grapes with paper this year for the first time. I have a mob of resident sparrows who are absolute thugs and vandals and love to get at the grapes just as they are coming to perfection and they peck at them to get the seeds out. Other people have trouble with wasps. It's the pesky sparrows that get mine!