Sad, saggy twig arbor
In 2004, shortly after painting Henbogle house, we built a twig
where's the house? window, what window?
arbor for the old concord grapevine planted on the southwestern foundation, at which time we gave it a severe pruning. In 2006, it grew enormous, threatening to overrun the house and collapsing the twig arbor. In April 2007, we built a sturdy new arbor that would withstand the vigorous growth,
in the beginning there was chaos
and it has performed admirably, allowing a view out the large picture window in the living room, supporting the vine, providing bird perches, and providing cooling shade for the summer. It has perhaps provided a bit too much shade, making the living room a bit cave like, so it was time to get serious about pruning.
About an hour into the job
We read quite a bit, and chatted with a gardener nearby who has a large grape arbor about how to tackle the vine. Because we want to manage our vine for both shade and grapes, it has been difficult to determine exactly how to prune them. The one thing all sources agreed upon was that whatever we did it would be difficult to harm such a vigorous, well established vine. Most sources said to prune the vine down to three or four leaders, making sure to mark them for pruning the next year.
The weather today was AMAZING, with temps in the mid 50s, skies clear as a bell, with just a light breeze, so today, Dan tackled the job. We got out the big 8′ stepladder, and Dan began. He carefully pruned away all the dead branches and selected 4 vigorous-looking leaders stretching along the trellis. It took about 3 hours start to finish, including clean-up, and was his hand tired even using my sharp Felco pruners. The difference is amazing and I am extremely curious about how it will look, and how productive the vine will be this year. I hope we have a good grape year!
More photos of the pruning action below.
in the homestretch
2/3 completed
Completed
It was a gorgeous day today, a perfect day to tackle this task.
March 8, 2010 at 7:46 am
I used to have grapes and they do want to take over the world, don’t they? I can’t believe our weather either. And it is to continue for a while. I keep going out for walks. I wish the ground was unfrozen so I could dig one of the beds.
March 8, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I forgot to take a pic of our spinach, it is looking good! Time to thin it soon. I hope you can get some gardening in soon.
March 8, 2010 at 10:22 am
I’ve been dying to get a grapevine started. Could you share some of your grape growing wisdom/expertise? How fast do they grow? How much fruit do you get? Where is the best place to plant them? Where did you get the design for that gorgeous arbor?
March 8, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Chris, the grapevine came with the house, I’m no expert! I can tell you that it loves the SSW exposure, and one year we picked over 30 lbs of grapes ( http://henbogle.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/harvest-day/ ). We have small fruits class soon at my Master Gardening class so I;ll let you know what I learn.
As for the arbor, that is our own design. Read about the project here:
http://henbogle.wordpress.com/2007/04/21/constructing-the-grape-arbor/
March 8, 2010 at 11:59 am
I had no idea you could even grow grapes in Maine – I didn’t think it warm enough long enough. I might have to try it someday.
March 8, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Looks great guys! Hey Dan do you remember the grapes we had in back by the old hen house in Brewster growing up?
March 10, 2010 at 6:06 am
Definitely like that grape arbor. Actually, that would be a good idea for us too, as I found a concord grape vine buried in some brush after we moved here last year. Can’t find any info on transplanting it, but did find info on starting new vines from cuttings. Something similar in the arbor department may be just the ticket for shading one of our windows.
March 20, 2010 at 5:35 pm
with the weaher so beautifull, I pruned my grapevine today, but now I’m worryd, that I did it wrong. The grapevine is bleeding, water is dripping from the big branch that I pruned.
Do I have to worry?
please give your input to this.
March 21, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Doris, according to what I learned in my Master Gardening class, it is pretty difficult to harm an established grapevine. I suspect it is “bleeding” sap just because of the warm weather. Normally vines are pruned in March in Maine while still dormant, but well, this winter has been unusual.
I did learn of a good handbook to cold-climate grape growing from the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension. You can download it here: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/A1656.pdf
Good luck!