fence vs. grapevine

[jenmah]

Hello! The previous owners of my home planted a grapevine too close to the fence and now the fence is getting pushed over and out of whack as the trunk increases in size. (Forgive me for any gardening terms I get wrong, please, I am not so good with plants.)

My question is how to remedy this? I can't move my fence over by the few inches that the grapevine requires. I want to save it...it makes for such a pretty area, spanning the length of one side of my house. But I also need a functioning gate and a straight fence. Can I slice off some of the trunk, vertically, without wounding the plant too much? Other ideas? Thank you for any help you can give.

[jenmah]

And because everything's better with a photo:

[applestar]

I don't know if cutting the trunk of the vine is a good idea. I would be more inclined to cut the fence just enough to provide sufficient breathing room since it's a wooden one. I imagine it would need to be sawed manually with a precision tool or even chiseled out -- maybe start with a series of carefully power drilled holes -- or you could easily injure the plant.

[gumbo2176]

I totally agree with Applestar on this. When I first moved into my current house, there was a 6 ft. tall wooden fence around the back yard. My neighbor on one side had a very large pecan tree that was pushing against the fence and forcing it to bow toward my property. I simply removed any boards that were pressed against the trunk, relocated the runners the fence boards were secured to and moved them up a bit on their respective poles to clear the trunk by a few inches and then sawed off the fence boards to fit around the tree trunk. The end result was my fence was now straight and I could see a portion of the trunk that was now exposed on my side of the fence.

Then Hurricane Katrina came along and blew the tree down-----right on top on about 40 ft. of fence that had to be replaced once again. Now I have a straight fence and no tree to worry about-------but also no pecans, and that sucks.

[jenmah]

Now that is a great idea and one I hadn't even considered! Would be simple to replace that board too, if it doesn't work, for whatever reason. Thanks so much applestar and gumbo!

Gumbo2176, sorry you lost your pecan tree, especially after all that work to keep it.

[imafan26]

I would take cuttings from the grape vine and move it.

It really depends on your relations with your neighbor on the other side of the fence because that is still encroachment. It also depends on who is maintaining the fence. If it is your fence or if it belongs to the neighbor.

[jenmah]

imafan26, it is huge and runs the length of the side of my house...I don't have anywhere else to put it if I did move it. So moving it isn't really an option for me.

The portion of the fence that would need to be changed belongs just to my family, thank goodness. Great point, though.