Growing grapevine from seeds in Singapore

Recenlty, I bought some "red/purple" grapes from the supermarket. They were quite large and round, and had many seeds. It was annoying to eat grapes with seeds and more so when they were large.

However, the grapes were quite sweet and juicy. I took the seeds and just buried them in the pot of soil. I had forgotten about them and thought that they would never germinate. I was wronged. They did germinate after a couple of days. I was surprised and quickly transferred them to another pot. The seeds were buried in a pot with watermelon cuttings because I thought that the seeds would never germinate.

I already have three green grapevines already which I bought from World Farm. They were with me for a year already but there is no sign of flowering. I think there is something wrong with the soil or missing nutrients. I need to do more research on this.

I didn't expect the grape seeds to germinate in Singapore's climate. I hope that the seedlings will grow well and develop into vines. Recently, my balcony's garden has been infested with spider mites. My watermelon plants have leaves with spider mites. I didn't notice them until the leaves started to dry up due to the spider mites sucking on the leaves. They are very tiny and can be found under the leaves. I didn't want to use any chemical, so I used a stiff brush to manual brush them away.

Grape Seedlings

Growing grapes in Singapore

I have heard of someone in Singapore who grows grapes successfully. It was reported in Yahoo news last year. I was fascinated about this but I think if you were to grow from seeds, it will take very long or in the worst case, the seeds will never germinate.

Last weekend, I was at the World Farm (aka Hua Hng) and I saw about 10 pots of plants with very faint label. Looking closely at the label, I saw it was written "Grapes $6". I was surprised and inspected the plants. I googled on my iPhone and found that the stem was the grapevine cane.

Grapevine at World Farm

It was not very common to find grapevine here in the nurseries. After visiting the farm and selected some pots for my Phalaenopsis orchid, I had decided to buy two pots of the grapevine since there are relatively cheap. I selected the two best ones and quickly went home. It was very hot here, almost 35.6 degrees. Strangely that they didn't have the orchid mix for Phalaenopsis. So, I just have to use the sphagnum moss for the orchid.

I asked the worker about the grapevine and he said that it is green grapes. He said that it needs plenty of sunlight and water, also the fertilizer is quite important. He recommended a 5-5-5 organic fertilizer for the grapevine. The fertilizer is $4 per pack.

I was very excited about this grapevine and hopefully the plants can survive at the balcony. I think I need to make a trellis for the grapevine.

Yes, I had made a DIY trellis for my grapevine to climb. It was very simple to make and I had actually made two versions. For the first version, I had used 5 extendable rods from Daiso (3 rods @ $2). I tied them to make a fence-liked structure and attached it to the pot hanger. The second version was much simpler, I bought garden wirings from Daiso @ $2. It is 3mm in diameter and 1m long. I bent and wrapped it around the hanger to create a fence.

Check out my Instagram @tanbk168 for the DIY Trellis.