grape vine

Couldsomeone advise me, please. My daughters greatgranfathers grape vines will be lost very soon(eminent domain). From what iI am reading here, the time to plant them is spring but earthmoving begins soon. Any suggestions? Clippings or digging? Thanks in advance. Melinda

I would hedge my bets and do both. If you can wait until they begin to lose thier leaves (September ) you should have a decent chance at transplanting them. You would need to prune them back severely to do this, so try to root a couple of dozen cuttings.

Best thing to do is dig them up. How big we talking? If they get pruned every year it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Winter would be better but dig them up, plant them where you want and prune them a little. What kind of grapes? I grow a local grape and I have no problem giving people 3 year old vines but I do that durning the winter after I prune them back and never have had a problem. If this huge.... might have a problem with the roots. Grapes vines come back very easily but I've never tried to move one that old. I tried to kill one that old. I used a saw-all to cut it to the ground (8 inches across at least) and the next year it shot our runners like it was happy I gave it a good pruning. LOL.

They must have fruit that's starting to ripen, you could go that route. Grow new ones from seeds but the grapes have to be ripe to do that. A grape vine only produces good grapes for so long BTW. On the other hand I've seen 150 year old producing grape vines.

I would try to move them, make sure they don't dry out and you should be fine. To be on the safe side grab some seeds if you can and plant those next year.