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rouge21_gw

Overly Aggressive "Wild Grape Vine"

last year
last modified: last year

I was out the back, just beyond our property and was bowled over by the "smothering" of what I think is "Wild Grape Vine" on the woodlot understory, reaching even higher to the maples.
It has grown monstrous this season with all the extra rain we have experienced this spring and summer.



Comments (11)

  • last year

    I have been pulling it out, but I think I will start cutting all these awful vines (porcelaine berry, wild grape, etc.) every week, few days. Read (I think in my Wild Ones newsletter, but not sure) that was better than pulling which can bring other seeds up and then you have to deal with them as well. Might have been a Way to Garden interview. Memory like a sieve-sorry.

    rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
  • last year

    That's crazy! Is all that just from this year? I would not be at all surprised. This is one of the things I battle all the time. Was woven through all the sassafras at the front corner of my yard. Also through a spirea hedge also along my property line with my neighbor. I'm constantly cutting it back. It grows crazy quick!


    This is also one of the things that has been taking over since the electric company has been cutting down all the trees. The edges of the roads are now crowded with all kinds of hugely overgrown weeds and vines, including grape vine, japanese knotweed, bittersweet, Russian olive. They're loving all that new sun! Ugh!


    :)

    Dee

  • last year

    Unlike Japanese knotweed, Oriental bittersweet Russian olive and some other wild things, wild grapevines are actually beneficial overall. NOT when they are trying to dominate your home landscape, I agree. But do please research wild grapevine as beneficial, which it is in many ways. There are many sites online to learn this. :)

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    NOT when they are trying to dominate your home landscape

    Well clearly my posted picture shows this plant "dominating" the landscape...incredibly aggressive, to the detriment of nearby flora.


    (I will replace the word "Invasive" with "Aggressive"?)

  • last year


    They take over young woodlands and smother trees, tearing down limbs from their weight. A real problem around here.

    rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked laceyvail 6A, WV
  • last year

    A couple of years ago I got into a disagreement with a county fellow when I cut down wild grape vines that were growing up over dogwoods and into oak trees at a county historic site. The fellow insisted that the grapes must remain because they're natives and benefit wildlife. I removed them to protect the oaks, also a native with a high wildlife value.

    rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked cecily 7A
  • last year

    Wild grape vine is a big problem in my garden. A long time ago it was not. The little seedlings are so tough they are very hard to pull out by hand. Usually they just break off at the soil line so have to be dug up.

    If we ever have an economic collapse or food shortage I read that you can eat wild grape vine leaves. Best to look it up for yourself. I used to buy grape leaves in jars to make Greek dolmas...stuffed grape leaves. I may try the ones in my garden if I ever want to make them again.

    I just ordered a book about wild food foraging. I have Euell Gibbon's Stalking the Wild Asparagus but the print is tiny and I need good pictures.

  • last year

    I grew up on a 10-acre piece of land in Massachusetts, and there were wild grape vines growing on our old stone walls. My mother made wonderful grape jelly. And numerous family groups from Boston would often drive out to harvest the grape leaves for cooking...

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Sure, have them drape over inanimate objects like "stone walls" (or other man made fencing) but clearly they are nothing but trouble for most any flora.

  • last year

    If that’s the same wild grape weed vine I deal with, you have my condolences. It’s terrible and will kill trees by smothering the life out of them. We have shorter oaks that they kill in about 2-3 years. I’ve watched it happen on my neighbor’s property. Killed a pretty maple tree, too. They grow terribly fast. That’s a big stand of them. Don’t let it make inroads onto your property!


    rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked sandyslopes z6 n. UT