Grapevine help

[ameno]

Ameno, sounds like these grapevines are more flexible than I thought they would be which is great. .

The main thing to know about grape vines is that they are thuggish brutes which, once established, can easily grow 2m+ in all directions every year if you let them. It's why they need pruning 2-3 times a year, and why the winter pruning involves the near total removal of all of that year's growth (down to one bud, unless you need that stem to form part of a new base framework).

[Sonja]

Ameno, sounds like these grapevines are more flexible than I thought they would be which is great. Your advice has been great. I’m thinking we might trim what the tops and branches etc now, plant them as low as we can (how do we know how low by the way?🤔. And then trim them down next year in early winter if we need too. Which I think we will, but will see how we go first. I don’t personally like the look of the high grapevines as much so would want them lower anyway.
oh yes, that’s fine about them not covering much over winter. We have lots of deciduous trees and they look great as sticks, allowing the green grass to be seen around them better than summer. I love both looks.

[Sonja]

Good idea Nicos, I’ll fix that up. Quite jealous you are in France. Beautiful countryside and no snakes 😆😆

[ameno]

He was the one who suggested we cut them off at the trunk. Aggressive approach!!! So I’m really just wanting to double and triple check his advice has merit. I don’t want them to die, but they are also no use to us if they are just the tall vines with no low branches.

The advice does definitely have merit, and as long as you cut them off at the right time of year they will almost certainly be fine.
It's just that it's usually best to avoid just drastic pruning, in any plant, if you can. It should be a last resort approach. So if planting deeper and at 45 degrees gets them low enough, it would be best to just do that, and only cut the tops off if that still isn't enough.

It's also worth noting at this point that the vines will only cover the fence during the summer and autumn, anyway. During the winter, vines should be cut back hard to an central framework, so there won't actually be many stems on them in the winter months (and no leaves, obviously).
Also, lack of lower shoots isn't necessarily a problem. New growth can easily be trained horizontally or even downwards to cover what you want it to cover. Plus even without beheading them, the trunk if likely to produce at least one or two shoots from under the bark each year. It's just when grown commercially those shoots are usually rubbed off the moment they appear, as they are not wanted. You can just leave them to grow, though.

[Nicos]

Haha thanks Nicos, we do love it. Little piece of paradise for us. The farm is in Yallingup Western Australia.

Wow!…paradise indeed! Fantastic Great piccies of your area online!.

(Just a thought….might be a good idea to put your location in your profile ( like I have done for me) as we may forget about your differing seasons at some point in the future? West coast Australia would be fine….)

[Sonja]

Ameno, that’s interesting about the graft. I can ask, but the guy who is selling the vines only just purchased the property, he is selling some of the vines that are there as he doesn’t need them all. He is a farmer, and did say he has 50 years experience with vines so I’m guessing he should know anyway. He was the one who suggested we cut them off at the trunk. Aggressive approach!!! So I’m really just wanting to double and triple check his advice has merit. I don’t want them to die, but they are also no use to us if they are just the tall vines with no low branches.

[Sonja]

Haha thanks Nicos, we do love it. Little piece of paradise for us. The farm is in Yallingup Western Australia.

[ameno]

Ohh that’s an interesting idea.. I could definitely go a little deeper then. How can we be sure what the graft union is? Or if they have one at all?

It ought to be a fairly obvious bulge in the trunk 10-20cm from the ground. Sometimes the bark will look a bit different above compared to below.
You could try asking the original owner if they are actually grafted. Most grapes grown commercially are, but not always (unlike fruit trees, grafting does not cause dwarfing in the plant. Grapes are grafted merely to give more resistance to soil diseases). I can't seem to see any graft unions in that picture you posted, so they might not be grafted, in which case you can plant them as deep as you like (within reason).

[Nicos]

Really lovely views Sonja - can’t blame you for wanting to preserve them.
Out of interest ( cos I’m nosey - well - so too are the rest of the Grapes to be honest ) ….what part of Australia are you in?

[Sonja]

[Sonja]

We need to be careful not to block out the view

[Sonja]

Ohh that’s an interesting idea.. I could definitely go a little deeper then. How can we be sure what the graft union is? Or if they have one at all?

[ameno]

Hi, the fence is 1.2 high so we ideally wouldn’t want the wires to be over 1.1 to be safe. That’s a good point about the bleeding, we will be sure to check that first and wait if we have to.
What do you think would be a safe cut?
Thanks for all your advice ☺️

I think personally I would do all I could to avoid having to prune them too drastically. If you plant them at 45 degrees instead of vertical, as Plot70 suggested, they would probably be short enough. You could also plant them deeper than they were originally (as long as the graft union remains above the soil surface) to lose a bit more height.

[Jungle Jane]

Looks like a vineyard near me,all the vines are this height & wires keep the height low. They’re at this height for a reason. Who owns all those vines they would be able to help,they’ll be experts at this or are they not about if it’s winter there?

[Sonja]

Hi, the fence is 1.2 high so we ideally wouldn’t want the wires to be over 1.1 to be safe. That’s a good point about the bleeding, we will be sure to check that first and wait if we have to.
What do you think would be a safe cut?
Thanks for all your advice ☺️