Can I prune an old ignored grape vine?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
larry_stewart

larry_stewart

Master Chef
Joined
Dec 25, 2006
Messages
6,216
Location
Long Island, New York
Ive had a grape vine growing for years ( I'd say at lest 5 + years, probably longer). I don't remember if I planted it, or if a bird did, but Ive just been watching it grow and ignoring it over the years.

Now that it has matured, and Ive gotten a few grapes over it the past year or two, I figured, maybe I should be taking better care of it and prune it properly.

Which brings me to my question, is it ok to prune the grape vine ( as it should be pruned) this late in the game ? or by doing so, will I screw it up?

It still appears to be manageable, it hasn't totally over grown.

Larry
 
larry_stewart said:
Ive had a grape vine growing for years ( I'd say at lest 5 + years, probably longer). I don't remember if I planted it, or if a bird did, but Ive just been watching it grow and ignoring it over the years.

Now that it has matured, and Ive gotten a few grapes over it the past year or two, I figured, maybe I should be taking better care of it and prune it properly.

Which brings me to my question, is it ok to prune the grape vine ( as it should be pruned) this late in the game ? or by doing so, will I screw it up?

It still appears to be manageable, it hasn't totally over grown.

Larry
Click to expand...

Winter seems to be the approved time to prune the vines. Perhaps the following can be of help to you.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=284
 
Larry, I would wait till the fall, after harvest, to prune. We're into the growing season now, which isn't the best time to prune fruit plants; you'll be cutting off the buds. If there are any broken vines, you can remove those. You can also train the vines now.

Here's more info from Cornell University's Extension Office: Gardening Resources, Cornell University

And a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnibuXSfEHc
 
Last edited:
I can't help with cultivated grape vines, but we yank the wild grape vines off the trees year around. What you can do, is watch the leaves...once they are about the size of your palm, you can harvest them for dolmadas. Pick the after the 4th leave down....and in the fall, prune them, make grapevine wreathes or napkin ring size...
 
I'm in the wait till fall camp to prune.

Great idea CWS has to use the leaves.
 
In the mean time, you can harvest the grape leaves and preserve them for later stuffing.

When I was a child, mom and dad would take my sister and me on a Sunday drive. Then dad would pull over in the middle of nowhere. Mom would hand my sister and me grocery bags and direct us to the roadside grapevine. We had to pick until the bags were full. She'd stuff those leaves for the most delicious meals.
 
I've been growing grapes for about 15 years, and I can tell you the absolute best time to prune is in very early spring. Ideally, you want to wait until the last possible moment to prune. Around here we usually wait until the buds are just beginning to push out a bit (late April most years) but you don't want to wait until after bud break because you lose a lot of sap at the same time when the plant needs the energy.

When you prune you encourage bud break, so if you live in an area prone to spring frosts and prune too early, your tender young buds have the potential to suffer frost damage. Fortunately, there are secondary and tertiary sets of buds, so even a bad frost may not result in a total loss.

Pruning in fall isn't a good idea, either. Again, pruning encourages growth. In the fall, it's better to let the vine just harden off so it will survive the winter.

There is a real trick to proper pruning. You generally only get clusters forming on wood that was new in the previous year, so you don't want to completely remove anything that is shiny brown. Just trim these shoots back to leave first the 2 or 3 buds closest to the cordon or main trunk, and you'll get grapes every year.

Rest assured, there isn't really such a thing as a vine that's beyond salvaging, unless it's truly dead. Even a badly butchered grapevine will usually send out suckers in the spring. They have a very robust root system that encourages survival, even in the most adverse conditions.
 
Last edited:
Welcome back Steve, it's good to see you again! :)

Before my daughter got married, she rented a little condo that had grapevines on the patio. She had no idea what they were, and hacked off the top 3 feet or of the 'dead plant', :LOL: down to almost ground level. I think this was around March.

We told her it was a grapevine (saw it before she hacked it up) and to start watering it. She did, and it went crazy - she had so many grapes she had to give some away.

They sure a beautiful vine - I would try my luck at some if I had the empty fence space to put up a trellis.
 
Last edited:
Every time I watch or read how to prune a grape vine, I'm usually ok in the beginning, but the more I watch/ read, the more confused I get, and feel like Im going to screw something up.

Thats why I've been so hesitant to take the initiative.
 
I don't think you can mess up a grape vine. 5 years isn't that old, no worries. Does it really need to be pruned?

We have lots of wild grape vines down in the woods that are really old, as well as a bunch in our pine stand, which I yank up in the fall to make wreaths.
 
Last edited:
larry_stewart said:
Every time I watch or read how to prune a grape vine, I'm usually ok in the beginning, but the more I watch/ read, the more confused I get, and feel like Im going to screw something up.

Thats why I've been so hesitant to take the initiative.
Click to expand...

Since it's been ignored for a while anyway, I'd go ahead and just hack the heck out of it, water it, and see what happens. What have you got to lose? You may get new growths and end up with a whole new grapevine! :)
 
Last edited:
Cheryl J said:
Since it's been ignored for a while anyway, I'd go ahead and just hack the heck out of it, water it, and see what happens. What have you got to lose? You may get new growths and end up with a whole new grapevine! :)
Click to expand...

This was my dad's philosophy for grapevine pruning. But then every year he would wonder why he got so few clusters of grapes. It wasn't until many years later that I knew the answer.

There are a hundred ways to prune and train a vine, but the one important thing to remember is that fruit bearing shoots always sprout from the previous year's new wood, so you don't want to remove that. And wood that's over two years old will not bear fruit at all.
 
Steve Kroll said:
There are a hundred ways to prune and train a vine, but the one important thing to remember is that fruit bearing shoots always sprout from the previous year's new wood, so you don't want to remove that. And wood that's over two years old will not bear fruit at all.
Click to expand...

It is almost like they were designed to keep you on your toes... I need something a little less high maintenance.
 
Steve Kroll said:
...remember is that fruit bearing shoots always sprout from the previous year's new wood, so you don't want to remove that...
Click to expand...


So when you're harvesting grapes, could you just clip off that whole branch at that time as it won't bear fruit again?
 
FrankZ said:
It is almost like they were designed to keep you on your toes... I need something a little less high maintenance.
Click to expand...

It isn't as high maintenance as it sounds. Once a year pruning is all that's needed, and once you learn the proper technique it goes pretty quick. I have 40 vines and it takes all of an hour to prune them. Ok. Maybe an hour and a half.

Andy M. said:
So when you're harvesting grapes, could you just clip off that whole branch at that time as it won't bear fruit again?
Click to expand...
Well, not exactly, because the shoots bearing this year's fruit will be the branches that produce the buds that become fruiting shoots next year. But older wood can absolutely be removed. From time to time, the entire plant will lose productivity, and you have to create new "cordons" (these are the primary branches - think "arms" - that run laterally on the trellis wire from the trunk) to rejuvenate it again.

I know this all sounds complicated but, honestly, it's a learn-once-know-forever experience.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dragnlaw
can I grow this?
Replies
7
Views
630
blissful
blissful
pepperhead212
Garden 2024
8 9 10
Replies
193
Views
7K
larry_stewart
larry_stewart
D
2024 NFL Draft - The #1 Pick
Replies
2
Views
324
caseydog
caseydog
D
The future of Justin Fields
Replies
15
Views
655
caseydog
caseydog
blissful
Saving seeds for gardens from year to year
2
Replies
31
Views
2K
dragnlaw
dragnlaw

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom