Riverbank Grape

Size, growth and what to expect

Riverbank grape grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator, and it is long-lived. Its vines climb 35 to 75 feet into trees or sprawl over thickets and fences. The leaves are 4 to 6 inches long, heart-shaped with three shallow lobes and coarse teeth, and the bark shreds into reddish brown strips.

Small, fragrant, yellow-green flowers open in May and June. Clusters of blue-black grapes with a white bloom, a quarter to half an inch across, ripen from July into September and hang into fall. Catbirds, cardinals, bobwhite, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys, raccoons, foxes and deer eat them, and songbirds weave the shredded bark into their nests.

It grows wild from Nova Scotia and Quebec west to Manitoba and Montana, and south to North Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas. It lives on stream and river banks, pond margins and floodplain woods, and along fencerows and roadsides. It has also gone wild from plantings in Oregon and Washington.

How to grow Riverbank Grape

Riverbank grape fruits best in full sun and grows in part shade, where it is easier to keep in check. It grows in most soils, acid or limy, moist or fairly dry. It stands flooding along streams. It climbs by tendrils, so give it a sturdy arbor, a fence or a trellis to grip. Keep it off ornamental trees and shrubs, which it can smother with shade or girdle. Set the support 6 feet from a wall, and set plants 12 feet apart along it. It burns readily, so where wildfire is a risk keep it out of the planting zone next to a house. It climbs whatever it reaches, so keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Tie the first shoots to the support until the tendrils take hold. Strip the ripe grapes from the vine, and wash the seed clean of the pulp. For a spring sowing, hold the seed damp in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 months first. It is most often raised from dormant hardwood cuttings, and seed can be slow to start.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Cut it back as needed to keep it on its support, since it can turn aggressive in full sun. Deer browse the leaves, so cage young vines where deer are many.

Vines are male or female, and only females bear grapes, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Bees carry the pollen. Japanese beetles can badly damage the leaves, and aphids, leafhoppers, mites, scale insects, leaf galls and powdery mildew also turn up. The grapes stay sour until frost sweetens them, and they make good jelly or wine. Other vines with similar fruit are poisonous, so be sure of the plant before eating its grapes.