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rajni1love

Disengaging Grape Vines ?

11 years ago

Hello, I am new to this forum and also to grape growing. We just bought a beautiful 2 acre home in Hot Springs, SD. There is a very well established grape vine on a chain link fence which we would like to move (the fence) for our chickens to another area of the property. The grapes appear healthy and may even produce so we don't want to cut them. However, Is it possible to disengage them from the chain link fence so we can remove it then replace that with an attractive lattice?

Comments (6)

  • 11 years ago

    Not if woody portions of the grapevines weave from one side of the fence to another through the chain link voids.


  • 11 years ago

    Thanks Larry. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing this is the case. We may be able to leave that one side of fence till a later date. In this case, What would the proper timing & procedure for trimming it back?

  • 11 years ago

    Thanks for the advise!!

  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    I grow several grapevines up against chain link (hurricane) fencing. It
    is a great trellis. BUT you need to keep the vine's trunk on one side
    of the fence and I enforce this with winter annual pruning. If you let
    the vine grow through and stay it will expand eventually stretching
    (damaging) the fence and girdling (damaging) the vine from that point
    upward.

    Unless someone did this you can almost assuredly expect the vine grown though the fence possibly at several places.

    Things you can do:
    (optional) If there is part of the vine running along the ground
    (particularly if the growth is not yet woody) you can cut and remove a
    half section of bark and bury it in a pot. It will root. Kind of like
    doing an air layering. Eventually you cut the vine from the mother
    plant. Then you have a potted grape vine that can be transplanted to
    the new desired area.

    (optional) You can take dormant cuttings, callous them and then plant
    them either directly in the ground or pots, again to produce a new vine.

    Either preserves the vine in case something goes wrong.

    As to the old vine and the fence: The vine is likely fairly woody so it
    will stand on its own once the fence is removed. But it is not used to
    being unsupported so it will be somewhat weak. If you do not mind
    cutting up the fence in that area where it is attached (it can be weaved
    back together with minimal loss of length later if desired) and
    assuming the worst kind of entanglement between vine and fence then it
    should be a breeze to do what you want. I'd wait until the leaves are
    gone so you can better see the issues. And being South Dakota, I'd wait
    until winter is pretty much over but the vine has not broken dormancy
    to remove the fence. Wire cutters for the fence; I like the wire
    cutting notch in pliers for this job. Cut parts of fence can be twirled
    up unwinding the cut wire.

    May want to do SOME pruning first to get rid of some of the vine that is
    in the way. And to cut as many of the tendrils wrapped around the
    fencing s you can reach. BUT do keep in mind there will be parts of the
    vine you want to keep and the manipulations you do may break some of
    the desirable parts necessitating secondary backup parts. So leave more
    vine on than you might otherwise in case some gets damaged in removing
    the fence. Pruning and metal cutting will be back and forth until the
    fencing is finally clear. If you have an old pair of pruning shears you
    may want to use them as cutting tendrils results in a few times where
    you are actually "cutting" the fence with is really bad for the shears'
    edge.

    Once the fence is out of the way evaluate as to how much support is
    needed. Also look for girdled parts of the vine. Either do more
    pruning or bring the new trellis into position. Attach trellis to
    ground. Use nursery tape to tie the vine to the trellis. And start
    pruning for that years production and next year's wood. Once the vine
    breaks dormancy the tendrils will secure the vine and eventually the
    nursery tape can be removed.

    https://www.sdstate.edu/ps/research/viticulture/grapeproduction.cfm

  • 11 years ago

    Hack it off to a stump(s). remove fence, replace with a kniflen two-wire trellis, You'll loose a year of fruit, but grape needs to be cut back every ten to twenty five years anyways.