air layer concord grapes? How prune from overgrown bush to now strung?

barplants123 barplants123

3 years ago

Zone 6.5 NJ.

we have a concord grape vine which is about 10 years old. Always produced good even when grown dense and unkept.

A few couple years ago I made a thread with photos

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5411473/grapes-falling-off-b4-ripe-2nd-year-bugs-cut-to-stump

wondered why they were all shriveling up way before ripening. It turns out grapes prefer lots of ventilation and them being against a wood fence with shrubs on the other side of the fence, plus allowed to grow dense caused fungal problems.

Last couple years I thinned it out but didn't (and won't) spray any fungicides etc, I still got a decent amount to eat but like %80 were mummies.

It has grown even more than those photos, it goes like 18 feet in both directions. Last week I thinned it out to still have about 14 feet in both directions from the trunk but I left only about 4 vines going each way. I removed like %75 of the growth and had I left it as-is there'd be like 10 vines going 18ft in both directions plus a big mass near the trunk.

From what I saw on youtube, growers usually only go for vines about 10 feet from the trunk in both directions and only keep 1 or 2 vines (so 2 or 4 vines total per plant with a total of 20 or 40 feet of vine).

I'm hoping thinning it out will eventually cure the fungal mummy problem without using chemicals.

Question is, I read I should maybe have cut them back to the trunk and let new vines come each year? And that'll actually produce more grapes and is better for the tree? Should have done that in Spring though I guess.

Also, a lot of the vine wood closest to the trunk doesn't seem to be budding, IOW I have 14ft vines X 4 coming off the trunk in both directions but like the first 8 ft of the vines closest to the trunk don't have new growth or grapes forming on them, so will they eventually bud out or do older grape buds not produce? I was hoping maybe they didn't bud out because they were shaded by other vines before I recently pruned a lot out.

I could google this probably but figured I'd ask here since I know some of you really know grapes. thank you

lastly, how hard is it to air layer concords? should I use old or new wood? I have good success with fig air layers but not sure about grapes. I have already layered (branch stuck straight down into the ground and rooted) from this concord but not sure how long that took because I think I discovered it by mistake, I read 2 years needed for regular layering and I prefer much faster, I do have a few branches from these vines buried 1ft in the ground starting early Spring but I won't pull them out to check any time soon. Prefer air layer anyway if do-able.

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air layer concord grapes? How prune from overgrown bush to now strung?

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