6 Reasons Why Grapes are Small (With Solutions)

You expect a good harvest when you care for grapes and grow them. And everything seems to be the same as usual, but it turns out that the bunches of grapes are not the same at all; the grapes got smaller.

If you notice symptoms like flowers and ovaries falling off, you can safely assume that your grapes aren’t getting enough pollination, which leads to small grapes. Another reason for little grapes is an abundance of new leaves and branches that you should have pruned in time.

When there are a lot of green shoots, the plant uses a lot of its resources to make leaves. This means that when there are a lot of shoots, there is less food for the fruits to grow.

As a result, the resulting berries don’t get any bigger. Instead, they stay small, about the size of a pea. At one point, the smaller fruits are easy to see between the bigger berries.

Possible Reasons For Small-Sized Grapes

There is no single compelling reason for grapes to become smaller in size. Poor pollination is the most common cause of this problem. This is especially noticeable in the plant’s double-sexed varieties. More specifically, such a situation is brought about by:

  1. Lack of interest in the plants for the bees;
  2. Pollen drying at high air temperatures (it becomes lighter and is easily carried away by wind blowing);
  3. Most of the flowers need to be pollinated, but there aren’t enough pollinating flowers;
  4. Incorrect planting location (fences and other obstructions prevent wind pollination);
  5. Heavy rain washes pollen away.
  6. Nutrient Deficiency.

When there isn’t enough pollination, most of the problematic inflorescences die. This is the plant’s natural way of ensuring that all of its resources go to the inflorescences that can make ovaries and then fruits.

Nonetheless, this may be part of the story. For instance, if a specific vine is overloaded with leaves and ovaries, it will expend a lot of energy for nothing, and you won’t get a good harvest.

It is perfectly normal for grapes to be on the smaller side of a young plant. However, if it continues to occur at a mature stage, it is necessary to raise the alarm.

Problems can also happen when vital ingredients need to be included. For example, if there isn’t enough water, grapes shrink their berries to survive.

It’s the same if there needs to be more mineral fertilizers. Fertilizers are less effective in cold weather, even if the quantity is abundant. Finally, even active but inconsistent watering can cause issues.

However, avoid constantly blaming yourself for all these problems. Grapes can be small-sized even with the best care due to specific varieties’ characteristics.

To prevent this kind of trouble, you should read the description of the planting material very carefully.

Choose the most straightforward types to care for, but even these grapes can shrink if planted in places that don’t get enough light and air.

Methods For Dealing With The Problem

However, more is needed to explain the small grapes sufficiently. The onus is on you to figure out what to do. And in each case, you’ll need a slightly different approach.

This means that if pollination fails, you should work to improve the plot’s airflow. Finally, it is necessary to make a decision based on the situation, which may involve the removal of problematic barrier structures or relocating the grapes.

It is sometimes worth purchasing planting material with different sexes the following season to maintain an optimal balance.

Plant honey plants near the vineyard to attract bees or set out baits (10 ounces of sugar per 1/4 gallon of water, a drop of honey, and a few grape blossoms; leave for a day).

Pour into a container, top it with moss, and set it out in the morning near the grapes. Be sure to cover the container, or else the bees fly to the sugar solution instead of the vine.

If natural pollination is not going to happen, you’ll have to do it artificially. One way to do this is to pick some of the inflorescences early in the morning when it’s not raining and use them carefully to pollinate the female stigmas.

The best time to perform this pollination is in the morning after the dew has evaporated. No rain must be expected. Do this every two to three days from when the flowers start to form until the end of flowering.

Supplemental watering with a sprayer is recommended to prevent the pollen from drying out and falling off the plants during hot times.

Fertilizer Application Methods

To avoid small grapes, you should apply fertilizer in three stages.

  • 15 to 20 days before flowering. You can move these dates back if the shoots aren’t strong enough. You should use 5 ounces of superphosphate and 3 ounces of ammonium nitrate for every 10 square feet.
  • After twenty days of flowering. At this stage, experts recommend fertilizing the soil substrate with 1.5 ounces of ammonium nitrate, 1 ounce of potassium sulfate, and the same amount of superphosphate. You should move the date back by five to seven days if the flowers fall off intensely.
  • While the berries were getting softer. In this case, the best thing to do is to use potassium-phosphorus fertilizers that have already been diluted in pure water. Such fertilizers can also make berries more convenient to transport and store for longer.

When growing grapes on small plots, it’s important to remember that you have to apply fertilizers more often. Also, experts and experienced gardeners recommend adding boron and zinc to the root zone to help plants grow even more.

If many leaves and shoots are produced, you must carefully shape the top and fruit-bearing vines.

It is essential to get rid of branches that are weak or broken. Apply the same technique to thickening branches. Cut off the tops of new shoots a few days before they flower.

You can prune away extra growth if pollination levels are satisfactory. If you find a poorly developed bunch, remove it immediately without hoping for improvement.

Other important points are:

  • Regular watering (once a week and more frequently in hot periods).
  • Loosening the top layer of soil.
  • Feeding with micronutrients, especially zinc and boron.

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