(Heard it on) the grape vine

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

Last year I bought a smallish grape vine but didn't plant it, as I first needed to yank out a huge shrub to clear some space. So the vine has spent the winter in its original pot, getting extremely cold.

Do you think it's done for? I just snipped off the end of a shoot and it looks alive (green, not brown) but it isn't sprouting yet. Should it be? Or is it too soon to expect signs of life?

I'm a fanatical gardener, but grape vine novice (as you can see).

sorry no advice BUT

for a couple of years (05-07) we lived in a house where had lived a great gardener ( i improved on his few failings ) we had a pergola at the bottom of the garden with a HUGE and prolific vine crawling all over it and draping down the sides

it was only after we had lived there a few months that i discovered the vine was in a POT

tucked behind a garage - a LARGE pot but a pot all the same!

That's encouraging, NotanOtter. I'm just concerned that as it's a small pot, the roots might have been frost-damaged. It was my birthday present from DH. Gah!

fear not

i have faith in resilience

Hi MadBad - I'm no great expert either, but do have a fairly massive vine which has its roots outside but grows inside (iyswim - ie it comes through a hole in the wall into what previous owners grandly called an inside 'garden room'). We didn't plant it and I hadn't had anything to do with vines before, so it's been a bit of a learning-curve.

However, mine is only just starting to bud, and that's inside, where it can get quite warm. If yours has been outside all winter it will probably still be warming up. If you stripped a bit of bark and it's still green, it's probably alive.

Would agree with NotAnOtter that you should give it time and patience - you have nothing to lose!

I inherited two vines with the garden - and both look completely dead at the moment. Try not to prune it anymore this year though - if you cut it once the sap starts to rise (once the weather begins to warm up) it can quite literally bleed to death . Best time to prune is in the depths of winter when it should be very dormant

But if you want reasonable bunches of grapes you need to prune hard - and thin out the bunches too - otherwise they'll be really tiny. I like vines for their leaves and tendrills though - stuffed vine leaves with fresh young leaves are also great!

Am sure it will be fine, but do plant it out asap in a warn sunny site.
And agree that best not to do any nore pruning this year.
Hope it survives...

I think its a case of try to avoid cutting into the old wood once the sap's rising - cutting back the new green stems later in the season should be OK (but you might want to check on whether you should leave it to just go mental get established for a couple of years before going for yield)