Asparagus
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Should I save this Grapevine?

I have a 65-year-old grapevine, it’s never been pruned, the trunk is huge, The grapes are blue and small with the seed in each, very sour . It runs 50 feet in each direction from the center, the two main Stalks are at least 6 inches in diameter and join at the ground. Should I cut this thing down and start over, or can I prune it and possibly get some edible grapes out of it?

JONA
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Posts: 812
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:11 am
Location: Sussex. England

Before you remove it...give it a last chance.
Prune it back to the nearest points that you can go back on each of the two branches that are still producing fresh growth.
It’s possible that you could go even further back...but you take a chance that any dormant buds may still be viable.
Then train the resulting shoot as a replacement branch along the support.
It’s the same problem that you get on old espalier apple and pear trees that have suffered years of neglect.
Worth a try on such an old vine.....which, by the way ...is a long way off being really ancient in the world of vines.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

NO do not cut down your grape vine. Problem with neglect is the plant puts all its energy into making leaves not grapes that is why you get small grapes. Start pruning off all the leaves, see if you can find 3 to 5 main vines to grow in opposite directions so you have 3 to 5 big vines growing in each direction like north & south or east & west. Be sure to prune in freezing weather other wise it might kill the plant. Build a fence with 3 to 5 wires 1 foot apart about 20 ft long total. Wine growers have the first wire 1 ft from the soil, and each wire above that 1 ft apart. Some wine growers have the 3 to 5 wires with top wire 6 ft high. Make the vines grow along the wires parallel to each other. Vines will get lots of sun and very large root system that you already have will produce lots of very large ripe grapes. Once you get grapes growing like this it is not much work and you get loads of large ripe grapes. The trick to large grapes is big root system with a small plant. Trick to ripe grapes is lots of sun.

I used 4 metal posts and 5 cement rebar for my vines to grow on. I bought 4 metal fence post 8 ft long, hammered them into the soil even spacing with the plant in the center. I bought the smallest cement rebar 3/8" and tied it to each post with steel wire. It took me about 90 minutes to build. Rebar comes in lengths of, 20, 22, 24 ft long. Rebar is cheap about $3.50 each and metal post are cheap too about $5 each. Buy good pruning shears made like scissors and start cutting off all the leaves once you find several large vines build your fence for them to grow on.

Trick to hauling rebar home. I laid 5 rebar on the parking lot then parked my vehicle over the rebar. I tied rebar to front and back bumper and 2 places on the under side of my vehicle. Put a red flag on both ends of rebar then drive home.
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