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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] restoring wild grapes
  • Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 09:53:51 -0500


On Feb 17, 2011, at 7:34 PM, mike engle wrote:


Background: 70+ years ago, my great-grandfather had about 100-150 Concord grape vines that he hired some Italians to take care of. When they became too old and gave the house to my grandparents, they stopped growing the grapes.
Today, there are a few wild grapes growing in two locations, one about 50 feet from that original location, and the other maybe ~5000 feet away. This year, I am planting five other varieties of grapes on the original location. A relative of mine just passed away, but he mentioned that he wanted to bring those grapes back to grow for himself.
My questions: I assume I don't want wild grapes growing too close to non-wild grapes? So should I cut down these wild grapes? But as a tribute I would like to get a couple of vines of these original grapes back into non-wild status. Is this possible, and is there a best way I should go about this?

Michael Engle
Troy, NY - 5


Are they actually wild grapes, or are they Concord vines that have survived?

If they're wild grapes, nothing you do to them is going to make them non-wild. If they're Concords, reclaiming them should be easy (and it's possible they are Concords, it's pretty hard to kill a Concord anywhere they're hardy. -- even if they are Concords, on unpruned vines the grapes may be small, tart flavored, and in straggly bunches, so don't go by the size of the fruit; and make allowances for lack of sugar in judging by the flavor.)

70+ years ago, they were most likely own rooted. If you want to keep them in their current locations, cut them off at the ground; they'll sucker like crazy. Select a couple of sturdy suckers and cut off all the rest; train those suckers as you want them, and go from there. (You won't get fruit the first year; Concords won't bear on a sucker -- that is, on a new cane coming straight from the roots or from wood several years old. Fruit will be produced on canes that, in a given year, are growing from the previous year's wood.)

If you want to move them, you can do one of three things: 1) Start as above, but dig up some of the suckers and move them. 2) Take cuttings, root the cuttings, and plant them. 3) Layer them: take a cane that grew last year, bend it over to the ground, bury it a few inches deep with a couple of nodes coming back up out of the ground on the other side. Prune the parent plant heavily, but leave some growth on it. Let the layers grow where they are for a year or two; then cut them off from the original vines, dig them up, and plant them where you want them. -- I'd be inclined to layer them, myself, as you may get the highest survival percentage; but this does require leaving the plants where they are for at least another year.

As far as whether they should be growing near your new grapes: depends on what, if any, diseases they may be carrying, and whether your new grapes are resistant to those. -- I don't know whether, if you propagate the original vines from cuttings, there's a practical way to sterlize the cuttings without killing them. Lon, do you want to weigh in in this?


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale







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