Grapevine help

[loadsofapples]

Just moved and we have an old neglected grapevine )it had lots of leaves on it over late summer). Apparently it used to be under a poly tunnel and did very well, lots of fruit (until that blew away one day).

Can it be resurrected? And if so, how should I go about it?

[MikeUniformMike]

You can probably prune it quite hard. They are quite vigorous.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Oh yes, that's well worth trying to resurrect! If it was under a polytunnel, it may be one of the varieties that needs protection, but given how old it appears to be, there's a good chance that it'll be a variety that'll cope well outside.

I would start by taking off all the spindly stuff to about 2-3 buds from a main stem. Not guaranteeing this is the right thing to do, it's just what I'd do!

[loadsofapples]

Thank you so much for your advice. Going to give it a shot. Hoping to buy a new polytunnel soon, guess if it doesn’t fruit I can use it for something else so nothing to lose!

[MereDintofPandiculation]

There's various named methods of pruning grape vines, but they all involve taking the new season's growth almost back to the main stem.

I treat mine like a wisteria. Take back new shoots about 2/3 way in summer, then main pruning in winter. I don't think it fits any of the approved methods but it works well enough for me - I can't be bothered to thin out the bunches to get large grapes for dessert, so I accept bunches of small grapes which we scatter on cereal, and I've just discovered Tuscan grape cake, which is really nice.

[drinkswineoutofamug]

The grape vines we have , cut back to the 3rd notch. This will help new growth. They are thirsty plants . When they have leave and start to flower spray with insect repellent. Enjoy your grapes in the summer. Ready for making wine about September/October.
Some of ours are over 20 yrs old and now have to be cut down and replaced.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

When they have leave and start to flower spray with insect repellent. Why? I haven't found them to be prone to insect attack?

[Janedownourlane]

We had ours in a greenhouse but had to give it a hard prune to get some shape back.

Between Xmas and New Year we cut the side shoots back to 2 leaf growing points. Once the grapes had set we kept each shoot at 5 leaves long beyond the grapes.