GRAPES

i,ve had a grape vine for eight years i think its a black hamberg it gets full of bunches but the grapes stay very small.the size of black pepper corns tried thinning the bunches ,taking all side shoots off anybody got any answers

Is this vine indoors or outside?  Do you feed it, what with and when? 

We bought 2 vines to cover a pergola mainly to give us some shade when sitting out.That was about 10 years ago. Most years we get a good crop of grapes. I have just asked my other half if he feeds then and he says not, he prunes them when they get out of hand, but apart from that he does nothing to them. They are planted straight into the soil, in a very sunny, warm position. I don't know the variety as we bought them mainly to give us shade, the fruit is a bonus. They are at the moment like peppercorns, and if we should get any sort of a crop this year we will make juice from them as they are not really sweet enough to eat.

When we went to the champagne area of France, and they grow them in very rough soil and as far as I know they don't water or feed them, just let them get on with it, perhaps someone will tell us how they grow them. As for dessert grapes perhaps that is a different method. Let's hope the warm sunny weather continues and we might get a crop.

Stuart, to get decent sized fruits you need to buy yourself a pair of grape scissors and thin the fruits out. you do this by cutting out every other grape, reducing the bunch by half.

My Black Hamburg is planted outside and was trained inside the greenhouse.  For the past few years i have done no good with grapes developing a grey dust cloud over them and despite spraying were inedible.Have now trained it outside with plenty of growth but only one small bunch along 12 feet. Any advice -?? Cheers