What to do with this overgrown vine

[gregsenne]

Hi everyone,
I bought this property last fall, and found a very old, overgrown grapevine. There are two rows of trellesis, about 50 ft. each. The back trellis does not have anything growing on it, but the front trellis has one vine, planted in the center, that is out of control. The entire area was overgrown with honeysuckle (it has been like this for 20+ years, because the previous owner lived there 20 years and didn't know the trellises were there). The grape vine has gone way up into all nearby trees.
While taking out the honeysuckle and other overgrowth, most of the grapevine has been removed. What is in the pictures is what is left now, but I am still clearing things out. I've tried to keep the grapevine in tact, but most of the small canes were cut while trying to remove all the honeysuckle, the canes that were in the trees, and all the thorny vines that were in it.

The vine does not resemble anything I've seen online about how it should look. Instead of going up, it branches off into 3 vines directly at the ground, and then go their own direction (not up, but sideways), and very inter-tangled with each other.

I'd like to plant new vines, and I definitely will on the back trellis.

here's the question: What would you do with this overgrown trellis?
I could..
1 - Completely remove it and kill the roots, and start with fresh vines.
2 - Chop it off at the ground and see if it will re-grow into a vine that I can train
3 - Leave it alone?? (I doubt this would be the best method)

I actually don't have any clue what type of grapes they even are. I've never seen it with leaves or fruit (as I moved in last fall and discovered the trellises around December).

 

[peaches9324]

all I can say is wow! And remove some of the old wood. And if you could contact the previous owner to find out what kind of grapes they are. They might be awesome Hopefully someone with vine experience such as grapeman will chime in

 

[grapeman]

What you have there now is pretty much an unusable mess. Not much way to train it with what is there. I would opt to cut it off at just above ground level. It should grow back from that and you can train up a new trunk. The trellis actually looks in decent shape. I would work with that and replant other vines off to the sides of the one "Mother" vine.

 

[gregsenne]

Thanks, that's what I was originally thinking of doing. I heard from a few people that I should not let that vine grow, though, because the root system would be too large, and not enough above ground, and the fruit would suffer. ALL of the vine you see in the picture (including everything up in the tree) is from one plant! I've never grown grapes before, so I am learning!

I might have to chop this one off AT ground level, or maybe even a little lower. Exactly at ground level, there are 3 vines that split off. There is not even an inch of the single trunk above ground level before the first split, so I'll have to cut it below that.

When I plant my other vines, what is the best way of doing it? I've seen that I can plant roots, but I should've done it in January and it's already April. Is this still an option, or should I be looking for a few grape vine plants at a nursery sometime within the month?

By the way, I am located in southern Ohio

Thanks for the help!

 

[grapeman]

Now should be a perfect time for you to plant bareroot vines (which have bare roots and a top not yet growing for the season). You can either source locally or order from a reputable nursery such as Diuble A Vineyards ( www.rakgrape.com ). They have a good selection and should help you decide what kind to plant there.

 

[gregsenne]

Awesome!
Thanks for the help!

 

[BobR]

Now should be a perfect time for you to plant bareroot vines (which have bare roots and a top not yet growing for the season). You can either source locally or order from a reputable nursery such as Diuble A Vineyards ( www.rakgrape.com ). They have a good selection and should help you decide what kind to plant there.

How warm does it have to be to plant bare root vines? We are in the low 30's at night and in the mid-50's during the day. Will they freeze in this temperature?

 

[grapeman]

Usually the vines haven't started to sprout when you plant them so unless you plant way early, they are alright at those temps.

 

[BobR]

Thanks for the help!

 

[gregsenne]

Most sites I've read say to plant individual vines 8 feet apart. However, every pruning advice I've read says the canes should not be more than 8 feet horizontal. If a vine has canes 8 feet in each direction, then this vine would be 16 ft. long, right? Why would I plant them 8 feet apart?

My trellises are set up with posts 8 feet apart. They look like this:
||========|========|========||========|========|========||
where || is a solid wood post and | is a metal fence post.

Should I plant just 3 vines on this trellis, or 6?
If x is a plant, I could do:
||===x====|===x====|===x====||====x===|====x===|====x==||
or
||========|x=======|========||x=======|=======x|========||

Thanks

 

[blumentopferde]

8 feet is a lot of space for one vine. I would rather plant them 4 feet apart, but I'm doing viniferas, and I guess that the american varieties are more vigorous, and can fill larger spaces.

Just one idea about the pruning:
I see that there are 2 stems going almost symmetrically upwards in a S-curve. Maybe if you cut these stems a few inches after the highest points (after the part where the stem gets thicker) you might get some new growth there. This way you'd save a few years of training!

grapeman, what do you think?

 

[grapeman]

8 foot spacing for hybrids is just about right. You have a central trunk and train a cane each direction for future use. Keep them around 4 feet each, not 8. It doesn't really matter how you space the trellis, just keep the posts a multiple of the vine spacing- or in you case you may need to adjust the vine spacing a bit to fit the trellis already established.