Harvesting PITA Grapevines!

My son has a chainlink fence between his house and the neighbor behind him. Previously someone planted grapes along the fence. My son isn't concerned with them and the neighbor wants them gone.

When is the best time to rescue them? These are all fairly thick truncks and should become my first truly collected specimens. I expect to collect them and transfer them to grow boxes first and begin their modification. With any luck, I will pot them the following year.

Jay

I am in Florida so take this with that in mind.

From what I hear it would be best to collect them as soon as the ground is workable.

Far from you as well but my mate collected a dozen or so grape vines that where over 100 years old. They collected at the usual time for deciduous being early spring and had very good survival rate. After collecting they where planted out in raised soil beds to recover then potted up a year later.
I was lucky enough to come home and find one on my door step a couple of years ago

Thanks, That should give me a month or two to prepare.

Jay,
I collected one near Mclean Illinois, a neighboring town of yours. Early spring, treated like a cutting and used turface (MVP pro) as soil. It grew new roots very fast with just sun and keeping it moist,

Neil

I have to say I am not a fan of recovering collected trees in the ground. I prefer to be able to control what is going on as far as Sun and water. Our climate is pretty hot so maybe that is why I don't like it?
Turface in a pot sounds good to me

Agree with Brett on that Jay. Aside from controling the variables (water/sun) having a freshly collected tree in the ground to recover will make overwintering risky. Best to go with a pot and the right soil.

NeilDellinger wrote:Agree with Brett on that Jay. Aside from controling the variables (water/sun) having a freshly collected tree in the ground to recover will make overwintering risky. Best to go with a pot and the right soil.

My plan was to plant them into grow boxes, not put them back in the ground. I prefer to take old pallets and cut them down and sometimes make them deeper. This allows me to move them, if needed, with a dolly or organize them on another pallet so I can move several at a time with a pallet jack.

Jay

Thanks Jay...not sure how I got the idea you were putting them in the ground.

Anyway, don't go too large with the box. Its better for the plant to have it cramped than to make it too big. Too much space in the box is bad. You likely knew that though.


Neil

I believe Brett mentioned putting his rescued grapevines into raise beds.

Depending on the size of the root ball, I like to make a square box that is big enough to allow for sufficient bonsai mix (mixed with some of the soil that was removed from around the roots) so that the root ball does not easily dry out too fast, but still allows for good drainage. I usually line the box with window screen wire to make sure to allow for draining, but not losing the soil.

Jay

Ha Ha. It was my mate that put them in the riased beds. I have heard some believe this the best way to recouperate sick trees and recover collected material.
Pots always seemed safer to me but since I have never really tried recouperating trees in the ground I can't say either way?
Good Luck