How to replant a vine
Since many grape growers ask this question, I thought it would be a good idea to write this article as part of the “New To Growing Grapes” series of posts on my blog. The reason so many new growers replant their vines is poor planning, improper soil preparation, and choosing the wrong site or location to plant their vines.
Choosing the correct location for your vineyard is one of the most important decisions you must make as a new winegrower, as this will be the future home of your vines for years to come. I won’t go into site location and soil preparation for your grape vines in this article, but you can get all the information for free by joining the Grape Training Program. The Silver Membership is a 10-day trial of what you can expect from the Grape Coaching Program.
Let’s make something clear; replanting a vine is not ideal, especially if it is more than two years old. Therefore, you must do some proper planning before establishing your vineyard. So your grape vines weren’t planted in the right place or are you moving to another home and want to take your grape vine with you – now what? Transplanting a vine carries a certain risk, there is no doubt about that, but it can be done if you follow the instructions that I am going to give you now. Don’t deviate too far from this as you could lose your vine.
The first problem With the transplant of an old vine (2 years and older), the root system and the structure of the vine get bigger every year and it makes it very difficult to extract the vine. By transplanting these vines, you will eventually damage some roots, as it is impossible to get them out of the ground intact. Damaging the roots of the vines will result in moisture loss through the wounds and could result in the roots becoming too dry and dying. When pulling vines out of the ground, be sure to dig up as many roots as possible; The more roots you can save, the more successfully you can replant your vines.
The second problem With the replanting of a vine, it is the loss of water through the leaves (evaporation). After replanting the vine, the roots of the vines are in shock and for a week or two will not be able to absorb water from the soil. If the weather is warm, the vine will lose water through the leaves, resulting in too little water on the vine and the leaves will begin to wilt. Therefore, you must minimize apical growth to ensure that there is enough water available on the vine itself by reducing the number of shoots to a maximum of three. I would recommend that you prune hard and leave only one strong shank from the base of the lowest chord. You can develop the new vine structure from there. I’d rather lose a year or two of growth and have a healthy vine, than try to retain the old structure and have a dead vine!
The third problem is to plant and water the vine. Because it has a much larger root system than a normal rooted cutting, you will need to make a much larger planting hole. Make the planting hole large enough to accommodate ALL roots and do not prune any roots to fit in the planting hole, but make the hole larger. It is important for you to understand that these vines need a large amount of water for the first few weeks (as explained above). After removing the vine from its previous position, place the roots of the vines in a bucket of water for at least six hours, before planting in the new location. This will ensure that the roots remain moist and that the vine does not leak water through the wounds in the roots.
Do not put any fertilizer in the planting hole as it will damage the roots.
I have successfully transplanted 5 year old vines this way, and there should be no reason why you cannot do it yourself, but it is always best to avoid replanting a mature vine. Hope this has given you more information on how to relocate a mature vine; the key is:
- Keep as many roots as possible,
- Minimize apical growth for at least a month.
- Make a planting hole big enough
- Keep the vine well watered.
Good luck danie