My 2nd IAC Grapevine (IAC#2) Last updated 20.10.12

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This is the complete chronology of my second  IAC grapevine, started with how it was planted in the pot last year 2011 September 15th, followed by the development during the growing stage, how I built the trellis, pruning, flowering, blooming, girdling, fruit setting,  veraison, and finally, ripening.

I have now two IACs growing in my house compound - the older, which was planted in the frontyard and the younger in the backyard. Let me call them the IAC#1 (read: "IAC number one") and the IAC#2, respectively.

The one year old IAC#2 is now fruiting for the first time with 44 bunches of grape fruit in total. However, through my reading from the net, a one year old grapevine should not be allowed to bear more than 24 bunches in it's first fruiting season. Over cropping for a young vine is not recommended. Meaning, I need to prune 20 bunches. But after the unsuccessful first fruiting of my IAC#1, I have put an extra effort for the IAC#2 - routinely checking every single leaf each week to make sure there will be no repeat of the Disaster! I have learned from my mistake and this time around, I am pretty sure I have done the best I can. I did the spraying as scheduled. I have fed it enough with both inorganic and organic fertilizers. I just don't have the gut to prune 20 of those 44 precious fruit clusters and only to throw it away. Pruning them is like killing my own 'babies' - and as what The Beatles have sung, "Let It Be, Let It Be...".

Note: This post will be updated from time to time as indicated by the date in red font. Photos and updates are arranged by the  "latest on top" and followed by the history. So, please scroll down to the end of this page, it is best to browse bottom up. Enjoy the pictures!

Ripening & Harvesting (final update)

This is the final update of this post. Here are the photos of the ripening stage and the harvesting...(sorry for the low resolution pictures taken using a mobile phone's camera and a videocam).

13th Oct 2012 - to be chilled in the fridge
(109 days after pruning)

13th Oct 2012 - 12 bunches
(109 days after pruning)

13th Oct 2012
(109 days after pruning)

13th Oct 2012
(109 days after pruning)

13th Oct 2012
(109 days after pruning)

Veraison Stage

This is the transition stage from fruit setting to berry ripening. The color is changing from opaque green to semi-translucent yellowish green (in the case of IAC variety, the white grape).   

15th Sept 2012 (11.7 months old vine)
 Notice the berries are getting rounder and slightly bigger?
(81 days after pruning)

15th Sept 2012 (11.7 months old vine)  - color is changing from opaque green to semi-translucent yellowish green.
(81 days after pruning)

15th Sept 2012  (11.7 months old vine)  - I think this one will be fully ripe in a week or two. 
(81 days after pruning)

Fruit Setting Stage

23rd Aug 2012 (11 months old vine) - 58 days after pruning

23rd Aug 2012 (11 months old vine)
58 days after pruning

23rd Aug 2012 (11 months old vine) - 58 days after pruning

5 Aug 2012 (10.5 months old vine)  - 40 days after pruning

5 Aug 2012 (10.5 months old vine) - 40 days after pruning

5 Aug 2012 (10.5 months old vine) - Girdled bark in healing process

2 Aug 2012 (10.5 months old vine) - showing two shoots, each with 2 bunches of grape fruit
 (37 days after pruning)

2 Aug 2012 (10.5 months old vine) - right top cane (to be permanent cordon) bearing 25 bunches of grape fruit.
 37 days after pruning

2 Aug 2012 (10.5 months old vine) - two bunches from a single shoot (Fruit Setting stage). 

37 days after pruning.

Girdling

The grapevine trunk was girdled on the 27 July 2012 to interrupt the movement through the phloem (the soft tissues inside the bark layer) of food materials produced by the leaves during photosynthesis. This should increase carbohydrates (fructose and starches) and plant hormones in vine parts above the girdle at the expense of the trunk and the root system. With the higher concentration of both carbohydrates and hormones, I am crossing my fingers that the grape berries will grow bigger and sweeter.

My IAC#1 is also fruiting at the moment (10 fruit bunches through spur pruning) and I purposely did not girdle it. Let it be the control vine for my little experiment - let's see whether girdling can produce bigger and sweeter grape come November 8th, 2012. [Update on 22nd Oct 2012: the fruit was harvested in stages from 30th September to 21 October 2012]

Tips: Grapefruit of IAC varieties can be harvested 135-140 105-120 days after pruning.

Close-up of the girdled bark

27 Jul 2012 (10 months old vine)- girdling

Flowers Blooming Stage

24 Jul 2012 (10 months old vine) - Flowers Blooming stage.  (28 days after pruning)
Tips: Flowers blooming start 3 weeks after pruning.  

Flowering

18 Jul 2012 (10 months old vine)- a single cluster of flower buds.
 22 days after pruning.

18 Jul 2012 (10 months old vine) - Flower buds cluster.  22 days after pruning.

8 Jul 2012 (9 months old vine)- tropical thunder storm coming soon?
 12 days after pruning.

8 Jul 2012 (9 months old vine)- eastern view.  12 days after pruning.

6 Jul 2012 (9 months old vine) - new shoots with flower buds.  10 days after pruning.

6 Jul 2012 (9 months old vine) - New shoot showing young flower buds. 10 days after pruning.

6 Jul 2012 (9 months old vine) - 10 days after pruning.

Pruning

Some say that in order to get your hair to grow really well you have to trim it back. This is even more so in 'grapevining' as the rule of thumb is "No pruning, no grape!". Pruning is cutting off various parts of the grapevine ie. canes, shoots, (fruits, if any) and all leaves. Best practice, 75-90% of the total canopy volume is to be cut away - I know, this is easier said than done esp for the beginner. It took me about one month before I dare to carry out my first pruning in 2011 - and of course not before reading numerous articles and watching youtube videos on how to do it correctly. Pruning grapevine is like a work of art, doing it just right will end in a masterpiece. Fortunately, the how-to information are freely available from the cyberspace. The Internet is the best distributed databases of everything, right?

Tips: During the 1st year pruning, you can choose any 'style' of pruning and can still see fruit months later. But for the 2nd year onwards, please be extra careful because if you prune it wrongly, you might not see any fruit! Just remember, only 1 year old canes will produce shoots that will bear fruit, ie. after the pruning for the 1st fruiting season  - canes will produce new shoots, and new shoots produce fruit. Whereas, starting from the 2nd fruiting season, the new shoots of the 1st fruiting season which have now turned to brownish canes should be pruned - leaving only 1, 2, or 3 buds. These pruned canes are then called spurs. The buds in these spurs will produce new shoots. And these shoots will bear fruit. Again and again, this cycle will be repeated in every future fruiting seasons.
Older canes might still produce new shoots but will not bear fruit anymore for that fruiting season. You can let it grow for the next fruiting season.
The easiest way to remember this -  "Only Virgin Canes Will Produce Fruit-Bearing-Shoots!". What are Virgin Canes? They are the 1-year-old canes that never or rather, have yet to produce shoots bearing fruit. So, if you prune all the buds of a one-year-old canes during the 2nd, 3rd , 4th, 5th, (and so on) pruning, YOU WILL NOT GET ANY FRUIT for that pruning-fruiting season!


My IAC#2 was pruned on the 26th June 2012 and new shoots started to grow about one week later.

4 Jul 2012 (9 months old vine) - 9 days after pruning. The unhealthy right cane was pruned.
Tips: New shoots start growing 1 week after pruning
Remember this ~ "No pruning, no grape!" but wrong pruning will not produce fruit, either!

Growing Stage

9 June 2012 (8.5 months old vine) - will be pruned in 2 weeks time

5 May 2012 (6.5 months old vine) - shoots of the left cane reaching the top wire.  

13 Apr 2012 (6 months old vine) - the right cane was not healthy due to mites attack. So another shoot/branch was
trained to replace the right cane and now has reached the top wire.

Trellis Setup

18 Mar 2012 - western view of the two-wire-trellis

18 Mar 2012

18 Mar 2012  - cemented anchor and two wire tightners

1 Mar 2012 (5 months old vine)  - shoots tied to the bottom trellis wire.
Need to buy another roll of wire for the top trellis.

When The IAC#2 Was Young

18 Feb 2012 (4.5 months old vine)  - After reaching the estimated height of the bottom
trellis wire, the vine's tip was snipped. Two lateral shoots have since grown on both
side forming the future arms (cordons). Time to build the trellis now!

2 Jan 2012 (3 months old vine) - The day after I arrived home from a two weeks Christmas holidays in Sabah,
North Borneo. I need to prune the unnecessary lateral shoots, and to tie the future trunk to the stake.

19 Nov 2011 (1 month and 2 weeks old vine) - Notice the difference with the photo below?
The lateral shoots have been pruned  leaving the main cane only
(to be trained as the future trunk). This is to maximise the energy consumption
so it can grow faster and straighter before reaching the height of the future
bottom trellis wire.

9 Nov 2011 (1 month old vine)

9 Oct 2011 (25 days old vine)

26 Sept 2011 (11 days old vine) -  the first shoot emerging from the super thin IAC grape cutting

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