# Best way to remove a grape vine?



## Snafflebit (Mar 16, 2021)

I have used a bumper jack to pull out fence posts. Wrap a chain around the post, and jack up until the post is out of the ground.
Would this work for a vine? 

I fear that I will be using a shovel to dig out 14 vines soon!


----------



## Rice_Guy (Mar 16, 2021)

In the vineyard where a variety is being replaced, I have cut them off close to ground level. A few shoots will come up on year one but a weed wacker keeps this down and on year two NOTHING!

I am lazy, if I wanted instant results as on the fence line at church I cut at a convenient level and paint the cut stem with vine and brush killer


----------



## Snafflebit (Mar 16, 2021)

I do plan to replant with some new grape vines. I should have said that. Some of the present vines are dead some not. I don’t have any reason to think there is root parasites either. I considered just replanting near the old vine and using roundup on the old stump


----------



## wrongway (Mar 17, 2021)

Snafflebit said:


> I have used a bumper jack to pull out fence posts. Wrap a chain around the post, and jack up until the post is out of the ground.
> Would this work for a vine?
> 
> I fear that I will be using a shovel to dig out 14 vines soon!


I cant grow a grape vine to save my *ss and here your pulling them out! lol


----------



## franc1969 (Mar 17, 2021)

Snafflebit said:


> I do plan to replant with some new grape vines. I should have said that. Some of the present vines are dead some not. I don’t have any reason to think there is root parasites either. I considered just replanting near the old vine and using roundup on the old stump


Any reason you don't try grafting then? If the roots are living and doing well, they're going to give more vigor. Of course if this is own-rooted vines NOT doing well cut and kill now. Watch out that the brush killer won't travel. I think it's 2-4D that will get volatile. painting the stump in cool weather should be fine, and leaving it long enough to bag up so brush killer is contained on it. the rest will dry out and be easy to remove when dead.
I don't dig unless I have to.


----------



## Rice_Guy (Mar 17, 2021)

grafting is a fantastic direction, you could have fruit in 16 months and still do fill in planting
the chemical I use/ bottle with a built in brush is _triclopry_. 2-4D (dandelion killer) is nasty near grapes


franc1969 said:


> Any reason you don't try grafting then? If the roots are living and doing well, they're going to give more vigor. Of course if this is own-rooted vines NOT doing well cut and kill now. Watch out that the brush killer won't travel. I think it's 2-4D that will get volatile. painting the stump in cool weather should be fine, and leaving it long enough to bag up so brush killer is contained on it


----------



## salcoco (Mar 17, 2021)

grape roots can be as deep as 8 ft as well as 8 ft in diameter. pulling them will take some action. grafting might be a better option or kill in place.


----------



## franc1969 (Mar 17, 2021)

Rice_Guy said:


> grafting is a fantastic direction, you could have fruit in 16 months and still do fill in planting
> the chemical I use/ bottle with a built in brush is _triclopry_. 2-4D (dandelion killer) is nasty near grapes


That is it, couldn't remember lastnight. Triclopyr is what I paint on stumps as well, will eventually kill poison ivy and sumac trees. 2-4D is bad for almost everything I plant. I worry about the neighbors using it to have pretty lawns, but thankfully we aren't necessarily that kind of area.


----------



## Snafflebit (Mar 17, 2021)

I am switching to a new rootstock and also from Cab to Merlot. There appears to be some crown gall damage also. In my opinion, not worth trying to graft over. This is a test to see how new vines will perform. Supposedly Merlot is resistant to many diseases that Cabernet attracts

Dad was in forestry and he used Tordon RTU to kill off stumps. I will look for Triclopyr. My understanding is that glyphosate and 2-4D both require active leaf growth in order to kill the plant. glyphosate specifically blocks plant metabolism in leaves and 2-4D is a hormone that promotes rapid growth which cannot respire properly. And both chemicals degrade in the soil within weeks. But they can become airborne which is bad.


----------



## VinesnBines (Mar 17, 2021)

I was told by the Virginia Tech research team to use glyphosate to kill off two vines with crown gall. I was to cut back to a small stump and paint the cut with full strength glyphosate.


----------



## sour_grapes (Mar 17, 2021)

I have also had good luck painting the stub of cut-down bushes with glyphosate.


----------



## salcoco (Mar 18, 2021)

I used glyphosate in concentrate form, on stubs as well


----------



## Snafflebit (Mar 18, 2021)

I just saw this video. I am pretty sure a bumper jack will work also.


----------



## sour_grapes (Mar 18, 2021)

One way to turn a lateral force into a vertical force is to loop a chain over a steel wheel rim, attach the chain to the vine, then pull on the chain (with a vehicle).


----------



## hounddawg (Mar 18, 2021)

Snafflebit said:


> I have used a bumper jack to pull out fence posts. Wrap a chain around the post, and jack up until the post is out of the ground.
> Would this work for a vine?
> 
> I fear that I will be using a shovel to dig out 14 vines soon!


still early so if you wait for a good rain to where the ground is good and wet, you can pull most anything and replant, I've' moved fruit or mull berry trees sometimes, i wrap with a towel then use a cotton rope so as to not hurt the bark, i use a frontend loader , but a jack will do the same, but the ground needs to be soaking wet,
Dawg


----------



## franc1969 (Mar 18, 2021)

Snafflebit said:


> Tordon RTU to kill off stumps.


Tordon is 2-4D, just so we're clear. Works well, and is effective painting only on cambium of cut stumps. I've used it to get rid of black locust. But if you are near grapes to be kept, find another chemical.Pulling out with loader or jack as Hounddawg does also works- you shouldn't have regrowth to deal with.


----------



## hounddawg (Mar 18, 2021)

franc1969 said:


> Tordon is 2-4D, just so we're clear. Works well, and is effective painting only on cambium of cut stumps. I've used it to get rid of black locust. But if you are near grapes to be kept, find another chemical.Pulling out with loader or jack as Hounddawg does also works- you shouldn't have regrowth to deal with.


I've used 2-4-D for years, now thanks to you i know it's name, Recon i should start reading the labels,, And i am not trying to be funny, i do know if you read the active ingredients in round up, the main one is in your cornflakes and most all of General mills cereals, glyphosate
Dawg


----------



## wrongway (Mar 19, 2021)

Strange but all of a sudden I don't feel much like eating my bowl of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios! mmm


----------



## hounddawg (Mar 19, 2021)

sux huh?
Dawg


----------



## wrongway (Mar 19, 2021)

Yup!


----------



## cmason1957 (Mar 19, 2021)

hounddawg said:


> I've used 2-4-D for years, now thanks to you i know it's name, Recon i should start reading the labels,, And i am not trying to be funny, i do know if you read the active ingredients in round up, the main one is in your cornflakes and most all of General mills cereals, glyphosate
> Dawg



Doesn't bother me in the least. Sure it can be found in most cereals, but at what level?? 500 parts per billion?? how can you even measure that low a level? and it MIGHT cause one more cancer incidence in a sample size of a million people. I got other things to worry about. I think alcohol alone causes more increased levels than that.


----------



## hounddawg (Mar 19, 2021)

cmason1957 said:


> Doesn't bother me in the least. Sure it can be found in most cereals, but at what level?? 500 parts per billion?? how can you even measure that low a level? and it MIGHT cause one more cancer incidence in a sample size of a million people. I got other things to worry about. I think alcohol alone causes more increased levels than that.


to be honest i don't recall asking you if you care or not, you must be worried by your stock portfolio, was a mere observation,, of course , if you add up every processed food, drink that one consumes daily cannot be left out of the equation, nope it is just a part of life, like big pharma , don't sell meds to cure or they would go broke, no more the a doctor which helped cire anything would have no more work, ect, ect, i made the observation, and to quote you , you opinion Dosen't bother me in the least. 
Richard


----------



## hounddawg (Mar 19, 2021)

@cmason1957 ,,absolutely no offence intended .
Dawg


----------



## Snafflebit (Apr 7, 2021)

I used a hi-lift jack and a chain to pull up the vines. It is working. I made a “tripod” by sawing down some 2x4s and put a bolt in the top threaded through the jack. It helps a lot. YouTube shows several examples. Funny thing. I pulled up some vines which have been “dead” for at least 3 years and looking at the broken roots they are red and wet like a live root. But I tried to slip the skin on the bark just below the scion and the trunk is dead. I don’t see any way to revive that.


----------



## hounddawg (Apr 7, 2021)

i know nothing about grapes , but live looking roots but dead vines is crazy, 
Dawg


----------



## Snafflebit (Apr 8, 2021)

@hounddawg I am taking your suggestion. I pulled up 4 live vines and transplanted them. After cutting off the broken roots. Fingers crossed!


----------



## hounddawg (Apr 8, 2021)

Snafflebit said:


> @hounddawg I am taking your suggestion. I pulled up 4 live vines and transplanted them. After cutting off the broken roots. Fingers crossed!


I'm rooting for your success,,,, no joke,, let me know, on fruit trees watering the first year or two are very important, just don't over water ,,,, ✌ 
Dawg


----------



## SeniorHobby (Oct 28, 2022)

Hello fellow grape plant diggers!
My brother-in-laws father had a Minnesota vineyard for 20 plus years and recently sold the property. The new owner is ok with someone taking the grape vines out so thus begins the plan. My brother-in-law has a nice skid loader with a large drill so we drilled new holes for the new vines to be planted. This skid loader also had a nice tool that digs down below the ground to cut off the roots several feet down. The plants we transplanted had anywhere from 2 ft to 5 ft roots. Any thoughts about the viability of these plants? We filled the 5 x 3 ft hole about half full then put the plants in and filled with dirt, then watered again. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we waited till the plants totally lost their leaves so they were dormant for the year. The vineyard was about at least 200 ft long by 4 rows. Almost made me cry! So between my brother-in-law and myself we took about half of the vines. What happened to the rest? We dug them out and tossed them in a grove of trees. If I would have planned ahead I could have notified some people that I've heard make wine in this area, then I thought about the work involved and who would want to do that digging. At this point with nice weather moving in next week, I was wondering if these bare roots are good anymore? It's been chilly since last Saturday, but it did get up in the 50's. I hate the thought of these beautiful vines going to waste. The other problem would be that we had no order to which vines were which, so if someone gets them, the will not know which plants a re which variety. Oops! Any thoughts?


----------



## Snafflebit (Oct 28, 2022)

The transplanted vines will need regular irrigation the first year for sure, and will need to be aggressively pruned to balance the plant. Grapes are hardy plants.

I would bet that the bare root vines would also survive. However, who knows what issues those plants had in the original vineyard. It is more cost effective to buy new plants and start over IMO


----------



## Rice_Guy (Oct 28, 2022)

@SeniorHobby Grapes are weeds. and as @Snafflebit noted prune heavily so that the root isn’t struggling to keep up with the vegetative part. This means that you miss a years worth of crop but increases the survival rate.


----------



## ratflinger (Oct 28, 2022)




----------



## SeniorHobby (Oct 29, 2022)

Snafflebit said:


> The transplanted vines will need regular irrigation the first year for sure, and will need to be aggressively pruned to balance the plant. Grapes are hardy plants.
> 
> I would bet that the bare root vines would also survive. However, who knows what issues those plants had in the original vineyard. It is more cost effective to buy new plants and start over IMO


Thanks Snafflebit! I will be sure to prune so that those new roots can take hold!


----------



## SeniorHobby (Oct 29, 2022)

Rice_Guy said:


> @SeniorHobby Grapes are weeds. and as @Snafflebit noted prune heavily so that the root isn’t struggling to keep up with the vegetative part. This means that you miss a years worth of crop but increases the survival rate.


Thanks Rice Guy,
I am planning on no crop for maybe a couple of years to give the roots a good footing!


----------



## SeniorHobby (Oct 29, 2022)

ratflinger said:


> View attachment 94576
> View attachment 94576


Hi Ratflinger,
Is this your way of transplanting grape vines? Ha Ha!
While we are on this thought. I was visiting with a winemaker the other day and he says the he burns the grass below his vines to kill and fungus that tries to climb onto the grape vines. Anybody heard of this before?


----------



## ratflinger (Oct 29, 2022)

SeniorHobby said:


> Hi Ratflinger,
> Is this your way of transplanting grape vines? Ha Ha!
> While we are on this thought. I was visiting with a winemaker the other day and he says the he burns the grass below his vines to kill and fungus that tries to climb onto the grape vines. Anybody heard of this before?


Well, actually the thread started out as removing vines and has moved to transplanting. Probably not the most successful way to transplant, unless by torching the 1st two it causes the others to unroot and move on their own.


----------



## SeniorHobby (Oct 29, 2022)

ratflinger said:


> Well, actually the thread started out as removing vines and has moved to transplanting. Probably not the most successful way to transplant, unless by torching the 1st two it causes the others to unroot and move on their own.


Burning seems like to way to cause their demise for sure!


----------



## ratflinger (Oct 29, 2022)

Could also be that I just like setting stuff on fire


----------



## Joe B. (Oct 30, 2022)

To remove a unwanted grapevine for replacement I drill a 3/4 inch whole down into the base of the vine before dormancy and fill it with undiluted Roundup give a few of months then dig it out in the winter when the soil is easier to dig. I've bean dealing with some Crown Gall, and Dead Arm over the last few years.


----------

