Any idea what this is?!

catewithers

GreenPete

It looks like a grape vine.

catewithers

YAY!!! That's what I was hoping! No idea if it'll bear fruit though....

GreenPete

It should do, it looks mature enough. It will fruit on the new growth, after you see small bunches form trim the shoots two leaves past the bunch.

catewithers

Thanks Pete! I'll let you know how I get on.

mjr600

Yup, it's a vine, to get it to fruit it needs a bit of work, you need to train two branches almost out at 90degrees from the centre wood, tie them in and then let the side shoots only grow up from the topside of the wood. A newly planted vine will start to produce fruit after about three years if trained and pruned properly.

Penelope_Penguin

Looks like a grape vine to me, too. Where did it come from?

Penny. x

catewithers

It's an ancient thing that's growing up the fence in our back garden.

It's obviously been chopped right down to the ground at least once in the past, and I had a good go at it a couple of months ago in my initial chop back everything so I can see what there is here stage! But it seems to be going strong!

In fact it's just all over the place and has clearly grown through the fence and is going mad in my neighbour's garden. Not quite sure what to do with it at the moment. As I've already pruned it back once, should I leave it until the autumn and then cut it right back in order to start training it properly next year, or should I just get on with it now?

GreenPete

Don't prune now otherwise you may cause the plant to bleed, it's best to hard prune around, or just before Christmas.

This link may help http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1100/grape_pruning.asp

catewithers

Blimey! There's a lot more to this grape vine lark than meets the eye isn't there!?!

I've got no idea how to start with this one - the vine is so old and gnarled. It hasn't been trained at all and is simply planted beneath some wooden trellis that is attached to the fence. It's then just been left to grow. Think I'm going to follow Pete's advice and just let it go til Christmas and then cut it right back in preparation to start training it next year.