I tried grapes years ago. I planted maybe 3 or 4 varieties. Nothing grew for fruit, and I pulled them out. A local college had some grape vines. They produced some miniature inedible fruits. An M.D. I visited in PA had some grape vines. They produced some decent sized grapes but were terribly tart and not edible unless you were desperate.
Are grapes usually this hard to grow?
It depends on where you are located. But most locations should be able to do better than you describe. You need varieties well adapted to your area. Most humid zone 6 locations would do well to look at the varieties from Univ. of Arkansas.
They are difficult. They need lots of sun, and lots of air movement around them ( yearly heavy pruning. In my area, black rot is the real problem. Look for disease resistant varieties. In many cases, you need to be on top of a spraying scheduele to get fruit. If they stay wet for any period of time, diseases like black rot can kill off their grape clusters.
I do have a few grapes, but prefer my hardy kiwi, for lack of maintenance and consistent fruit quality
Grapes can definitely be done though, there are several wineries near me, but they are not a plant that you can just plant and ignore
Yes, the key is matching varieties to the region. For example, California table grapes will perform terribly in the eastern half of the USA. They can’t handle the disease pressure and rainfall. Varieties that do well in Wisconsin will die in Florida or southern Georgia. While varieties that do well in the southeast typically don’t have enough cold hardiness to survive in the northeast. Also, unless you’re in a dry climate, odds are you will have to spray most grapes, even regionally adapted varieties, if you want grapes on a consistent basis. The few exceptions typically have poor fruit quality.
In Pennsylvania, you will need to spray 2-3 times to get a good crop. Rot is bad (eventually). Also, birds can be a challenge, depending on the variety of grape. Somerset seedless (a small, sweet grape) can be grown without spraying in Northeast PA, but the birds love it. I covered the clusters with paper bags last year and they tore holes in them to get to the grapes. I had Jupiter and Steuben and they needed more care than I was willing to give them. Last I heard, people were excited about Everest Grape, which was developed in NY. I have not heard recent updates on that grape. (EDIT: Spotted Lanternflies will set up a party on your vines too)
Thanks for all the info. I had no idea they needed so much spraying. Do they have wild grapes that do not need all that?
I wonder if wineries wash the grapes well before making wine to get rid of the chemicals.
I grow an old variety from my great grandfather in southside Va. I’m nearly certain it is just plain old concord. My vines (abt 5yrs old) have never been sprayed, the ones I planted about 10-15 years ago at my parents have never been sprayed. We get a good amount of grapes for more jelly than we’d ever use and a good bit of grape juice. I’ve been trying small wine batches with success ranging from “ok” to 
. Pretty sure it’s my technique not the grapes though 
There is some disease pressure, but it’s never been enough to justify spraying. I always try to balance cost. If I lose 25 individual grapes per season to disease out of 5 vines, it isn’t worth the cost and effort of spraying, not to mention I have a toddler who eats everything and washes nothing. I wouldn’t even notice the losses if I wasn’t monitoring the vines and just looked at harvest. I do lose a lot to birds, so that’s where I focus my damage control efforts.
Mars is a different story. I’m contemplating ripping them out after losing almost the whole crop last year.