I am in New Jersey. The grapes would not be grown ON the roof but on an
arbor at roof level over my back porch. Fairly easy access with a short
ladder. I could put pipe insulators on the stalk during the winter for
protection. Thanks all for the help.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Tom,

You can have long stalks or in viticulture language, trunks. There is a
common thought that the more perennial wood on a vine the better the
quality of the grapes. The long trunk certaintly would give you that.
Short trunks are used mostly in cold climates in case the trunk is
injured it can be replaced quickly( 1 year ). Where are you located???
If winter injury is a problem then it might be frustrating trying to
keep a trunk more than a few years. If not, it should work. Pruning
would be a high wire act. The only problem I see is that the roof may
get too hot or if the vines are growing directly on the roof , moisture
could be a problem on the underside of the leaf. If you can keep the
leaves off the roof, then your good to go.

Bob


Tom wrote:
Can I grow my vines (white grapes) so that the "base"or "stalk" is
around 10 -15 feet long with no (trimmed off) leaves or off shoots, until
it
gets high enough to get up to the roof line (of my house) and thus
receive
full, day long, sunlight? The "stalk" is now in mostly shade (4 hours of
direct sunlight). I would then trim and prune the top part into an arbor
and
encourage grape development only where it gets full sun.
I make wine from store purchased juice but would love to do from my
own
vines. Right now the production and quality of my grapes are very low do
to
the limited amount of sun on these vines. They were from my grandfather's
garden and he used to make wine from them, so I would love to carry on
the
tradition but my spot to grow them is far from ideal. Thanks for any
help.