Help! I have a hot mess on my hands

[elewis]

My in laws have a rental and in the backyard is a concord grape vine. The renters didn't care that I took the grapes and I told them I would prune the vines. This thing has not been taken care of and I'm thinking whoever planted the vines didn't know what they were doing. I am new to pruning and am not the best at it.

From the pictures you can see the vines have fallen on the ground since a post went down. Is there anyway to implement a new trellis system or is this a lost cause? Also you can see one vine is planted at one end and the other at the opposite end. I'm not sure how old it is but the vine is pretty thick. Any tips would be great!




The whole thing



Vine to the west



Vine to the east



View from down the middle

 

[Pat57]

testing testing

 

[elewis]

Oh and the new post you see has a dog run on it so I can't use that.

 

[DoctorCAD]

I don't know that much about grape growing except for what I see at the vineyards I visit, so take my advice with that in mind...

I would prune the crap out of those vines and reset or replace the posts. Most vineyards seem to prune pretty far down in the off season. I know it might take a few years for the grapes to come back, but at least they would be running on new wires and posts.

 

[Boatboy24]

I know very little about winemaking and even less about growing grapes, but what Dr said makes sense to me.

Might be a little concerned about having a dog run that close to my grapes.

 

[saddlebronze]

Not to worry, here is how I would fix this one. Take the vines off the wires temporarily. If you need to cut some growth to do that, its OK, just leave a few newer canes on the trunks. Then it looks like you have two exta posts there, I would use them as braces for the end posts. Dig them into the ground and lean them at a 45 degree angle so you can notch them into the remaining two upright posts once you have them standing straight. You might need to have someone help you pull the uprights up straight. then either notch the brace posts into the uprights or put a long carriage bolt through the brace and upright or notch them with a saw and wrap with wire. Then pick out the best two canes on each vine and tie them to the wires, leaving about 10-20 buds on each cane. You are now back in business.

 

[BobR]

After many years of neglect, I've seen old back yard Concord vines that look like that, some even worse. Funny thing is, you can usually still get a nice crop of grapes off of them. That looks like it would be an easy fix. Extend the row with a new post on each end, a new wire and a little pruning. It's hard to see in the photos, but back in the old days, they usually ran 3 wires and the top wire was not even at four feet. You could probably get by with two wires. Keep us posted!