Do grapevines & fruit trees mix?

October 27, 2009 7:28 AM

Is it ok for a grapevine to grow thru my apricot, apple & nectarine trees?

Will the trees become more susceptible to fungus or will the vine wrapping itself around the bark choke the trees? The grapevine comes from my neighbor's yard but I do get quite a few grapes from it. I'd hate to have to cut it. It just sort of meanders thru the 3 trees. This is the first year that it's happened.

I live in Southern California (if my location matters for the answer)

Thank you hive mind!

posted by armlock to home & garden (5 comments total)

Grapevine will wrap itself around anything standing.

My mother planted one way too close to shrubs and it enveloped them. They had to dig it up, it was overwhelming.

I've got a wild grape vine growing in the woods behind my house. I can't figure out where the base of it is, I'm guessing in the middle of thorny shrubs, but it's high up into a bunch of trees and inevitably, a couple vines dangle low enough to hit your head as you walk by. I am forever pruning the hanging vines.

Unless you've got the space (I'd say about 10 feet clearance) and a good trellis, I'd yank that thing. It's a "pleasant" weed.
posted by jerseygirl at 7:39 AM on October 27

It won't just choke them, it'll bring them down with its weight, it'll starve them for sunlight as its big beefy leaves throw shade on the regular tree. It'll grow up too high for you to cut it, and it'll quickly get to the point that chopping through it at the base of the tree won't kill it.

Grapevine = decorative kudzu.

Kill it now or wish you had.
posted by TomMelee at 7:55 AM on October 27

Don't let it wrap around your trees for the reasons mentioned above, but if you do want to keep it, lead it away from your trees and let it wrap around a stake or trellis where it won't do harm.
posted by rmless at 8:19 AM on October 27

My next-door neighbor's house is literally covered in grapevines. (Intentionally. She's a bit loony.) This past year, the vines finally choked the life out of her big, beautiful cherry tree.

The vines that climb into the canopy of a tree will never get thick and woody enough to strangle anything (The really woody ones are much nearer the ground), but they will eventually provide so much cover that they'll block the sun from the tree, resulting in its death.

Don't do it.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:11 AM on October 27

Grapes are going to shade the heck out of your fruit trees which will a) lower their ability to maintain themselves and produce fruit and b)promote fungal and scale growth by setting up higher moisture levels at the centre of the tree. It'll also make pruning the trees properly difficult if not impossible. You want to keep these things separate.
posted by Mitheral at 9:59 AM on October 27