Philippines is a tropical country with rain evenly distributed throughout the year. Many people don't believe that grapes grow in our country but we have one. We have prunes, idk if that's still a grape. Is there breed/variety you could recommend? I want grapes to to be eaten, not for wine or etc.
1 Answer
The rain itself shouldn't be a problem for the grapevines, as they can handle lots of water, and even inundation.
Without cold temperatures(25.5 °C at best according to Wikipedia), they require water stress to go dormant, though.
The quality of the grapes will probably be very low with little sun and lots of precipitation during the fruiting part of the year.
For best quality you would have to plant them in high drainage, low nutrient soil, like almost straight coarse sand.
Even if you do get grapes, you might then have trouble with typhoons wreaking havoc before harvest.
As for the variety, European grapes are all very susceptible to all kind of molds so they are out. You should use a highly fungus resistant hybrid or wild variety.
Apparently, "Isabella" is a popular variety for tropical regions.