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Grape vine and trees, advice needed

Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis

14 years ago

On the rear of my 1.2 acres I have two wildish areas. Over the last 7 years I've reduced the honeysuckle in one and virtually eliminated the a series of vines with trunks as thick as my arms which were causing problems for the walnut trees during wind storms.

My goal isn't the golf course manicured look for my yard, just think the honeysuckle and vine mix was boring and find my ability to grow a dozen different bushes or small trees in its place more interesting.

Just wondering if I've correctly identified the vine as one of the wild grape varieties? Any better tricks for getting rid of it than keep cutting and applying Round-up to both ends?

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Comments (4)

shortleaf2002
14 years ago
Thats what it looks like to me, is the dastardly wild grape-vines. I remember a few years ago
I was trying to identify it too. I always suspected it was wild grapes too. I have an Aunt
who makes grape jelly out of Wild Grapes and it makes jelly as good as Smuckers, well I thought it was
good. I severed some big vines that were going up in trees and noticeably weighing them down.
Those vines would have water running out of them when I cut them, water glasses could be fillled up.
I think they help trees collapse in storms. I know we had a big ice storm in early 02' and the trees
with vines up in them were all over the ground.
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Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
Original Author
14 years ago
That sure does look like the "trunks" I've been cutting up.

Maybe fire controls the vines in the wild but it sure tries to take over my yard. Figure no matter how hard I try I won't be able to get rid of it entirely.
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This is a fun little experiment so definitely keep us posted. I think we're all learning something here. :) Rooting under glass in this case, to me, means cutting a short section of stem, sticking it either in to a pot of good potting soil, or sticking it in to the ground, and then watering well and either covering the cutting/stem with a bell jar, glass, or plastic bag etc to make a mini-greenhouse. If you have 14 feet to work with, yes "mixing it up" would mean hacking it in to smaller pieces and trying different strategies. If it was mine, I'd cut it in to 12 inch sections (keeping track of which end was pointed to the original roots and which was pointed to the branch tip) and I'd try different strategies: rooting in water indoors, rooting in water outdoors, rooting in potting soil indoors, rooting in potting soil outdoors (covered), sticking some in soil outdoors (maybe some with, or some without, the little greenhouses), and so on, just to improve your chances for success. I bet you'll get some success from one of these methods. I wouldn't add manure etc to the soil where you're rooting them--sometings that can encourage rot or burn etc. I'm sure they'll love it once they're rooted and you're ready to plant them to their new permanent home. Keep the updates coming as I'd love to know what method succeeds for you since I've always rooted only dormant stems (and quite lazily at that with a gentle shove of the stem in to the ground or potting soil in winter). Take care and super good luck! Grant
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CodyM: I do not grow the grape varieties you mention but I am familiar with them. I grow Concord and Canadice in SE WI. I have grown Edelweiss, Himrod seedless and others in the past. If your vines are young and not bearing fruit, I would not spray them. Once they are bearing, then I spray mine with Captan fungicide in spring to prevent back rot. Usually I spray them when the buds are just bursting and again weekly until the fruit is formed and sizes up so noticeable. Since I spray my apples all season, I still hit the grapes as well. I got hammered last August as we had a freak 3rd generation of grape berry moth and ended up loosing 1/3 of my crop to it. Normally I do not spray my grapes after August 15th. When to stop however depends on when the variety is going to ripen. Some of my seedless grapes ripen in August so I stop spraying in late July on those varieties. Last year a friend lost a lot of his crop to downy mildew in August. I had none on mine luckily. His fruit was just covered in white mildew. I spray fungicide in spring for black rot prevention. I spray fungicide later in season for mildew control. For insects the only issue I have had is grape berry moth so I do use an insecticide during the growing season as we normally can get 2 generations of berry moth in my area. The big issue on the fungal problems is that you need to spray to prevent the disease once you have fruit. Spraying a fungicide after you have black rot or mildew on the fruit will do no good. If your area has low humidity then fungal issues may not be a big problem for you.
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I also have an old grape vine. In the Fall I am going to build a better trellis with wood posts and an overhang. This vine sits outside our dining room window and unfortunately looks like a pile of weeds to most people. Originally my plan was to cut the vine way back to just the head and cordons. It looks like the previous owner trained the vine to have upper and lower cordons. Since the first photo there has been some growth, I was hoping to get to trimming before growth started. Should I cut the canes back to the cordons? Should I just let it grow for this season? It really looks like a mess right now.
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brandon7 TN_zone7
14 years ago
I cut these off at about 4' or 5' so that I can easily bend the cut end back down to the ground. Then, while the cut is still very fresh, I dunk it into a small glass filled with 18% glyphosate ("regular" Roundup without water). Most of the time, that eliminates that vine, but these things can be almost magically persistent and require a second treatment. Time of year does make a difference in how easy they are to kill. One source online says to apply in "early March (or) mid-September, but not in mid-August".
wisconsitom
14 years ago
I've got wild grape growing up into some of my conifers in my woods. Can't be allowed to happen as they will grow so profusely as to shade out the underlying tree. So yes, cut and apply herbicide. If you are able to acquire the herbicide Garlon, that is a little more effective for this application than is Roundup. But......Roundup-style herbicides will do the trick. Are you making a strong solution? In the case of professional strength glyphosate (Roundup active ingredient) materials that I've used, the recommendation for this application is to mix the full-strength concentrate 50/50 with water.

BTW, I think this problem is on the increase. My theory is that there have been some drought years, and that nothing, not even severe drought stops these vines. Hence, the poor growing conditions of recent years have given the wild grape a bit of an advantage. Not sure, just speculating.

+oM

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