Saturday, April 16, 2016

Growing grapes in Singapore

Life can be marvelous! Growing grapes in Singapore is quite an interesting topic. Many Singaporeans will say that it is mission impossible because the weather here in Singapore is humid and hot. But if you do some researches on the internet, you will realise that grapes need many hours of direct sunlight to grow, sweeten and then ripe.

The hot and sunny weather is a key ingredient for growing grapes and that makes Singapore a great place to grow grapes. There is one Singapore staying in Yishun growing grapes along his HDB corridor. He joked that his friend said why he hanged fake grapes on the trellis!

I often visit World Farm or Hua Hng at Bah Soon Pah Road. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the World Farm might have exotic plants, flowers and fruit trees available for sales.

Recently, a blogger mentioned in his SG My Life is Good that he saw many pots of grapevines at World Farm. I was exciting as I was looking for one for some times. I quickly went to the World Farm and luckily there were about 5 pots left. I bought three pots back and hopefully in a couple of years, I will be able to have grapes at my balcony.

That is why life can be marvelous! You don't have to leave in temperate countries in order to grow grapes. If I'm successful, maybe I can grow it in a farm in Singapore?

My balcony is not big, I read that I need to build a trellis for the grapevine to climb. I'm going to DIY a trellis using materials recommended by SG My Life is Good. He had built two versions and it is very interesting. The materials can be bought from World Farm and also Daiso (every item @ $2).

My trellis will be small. Oh, I have three pots of grapes and that will take up a lot of space.

I realised that the earth's position relative to the Sun rays has changed a little. Now, my balcony is not getting any direct sunlight. The sun rays just missed my balcony. I think from March onwards, I will not be getting direct sunlight. I think the sun rays will only land onto my balcony during September period. So, from March to August, there will be no direct sunlight and from September to February, I will have plenty of direct sunlight. I hope the grapevine will continue to grow even without direct sunlight and by September, when there is plenty of direct sunlight, the grapes can flower and bear fruits.

Some bloggers or forumers are saying that the grapes need to be pruned during the first year and will not bear fruits. I don't know how since I have not grown it before and I cannot find information on people from the tropics that had grown grapes and had shown them on the internet. As I have three pots, I think I will use one pot to test the pruning as well as trellis. If they are successful, I can then duplicate the growing process on the other two pots.

Grapes in Singapore
Grapes

Another thing that I'm going to try is to propagate the grapevines. When I prune the grapevine, I can also plant the cuttings and see whether they will grow. It will be exciting also to multiply the grapevine and share with my friends and relatives.