Hello, I am new to this site, as well as to raising grape vines (though I am a very experienced gardener). about 2 days ago I went to an abandoned Grapevine field and decided to take 3 of the plants there, since I really wanted a mature grapevine and the city was going to rip them all out for residential construction anyway. I figured that these plants should be pretty tough since they have been abandoned for more than 5 years and we have had a terrible drought for the last 3, yet they still grow huge every year. So I go to this field and find the 3 smallest vines I can, but to my surprise... the roots are huge, like a tree, and spread out wider than the plant itself. So I did the best I could to dig up the plant without hurting it... but the roots on those plants are so fragile that I think I ended up braking the majority of them off by accident. I tried to save as many roots as I could. Well, after about 2 hours trying to dig up only 3 plants and nearly breaking my back... I finally get them loaded into my car and take them home. I planted them with Vitamin B-1 and watered the dirt until it was thoroughly soaked. I have also been misting the leaves throughout the past couple of days to get as much water to the plant as possible. well.... the plants look verry sad and I'm worried that they won't make it. So my question is basically how resilient are these plants? If the roots are broken off, can it regrow more from the trunk itself? I figure that I will lose the growth that it currently has, but will it be able to bounce back next year with a lot of TLC? Or will I be wasting my time?
I think it's worth a try. I don't know much about grape vines, but I would say to make sure the roots don't dry out while it's trying to establish itself. Just be patient, I had a plant LOOKED dead when I got it, but it bounced back.
I've been growing grapes for the last 7 years, a short time by most standards, and we're not exactly in "wine" country, what we did was just go to a vineyard that does produce grapes and got the pieces that they prune off each spring, we planted them kept them watered and they've been giving us grapes since the third year. since you already have roots on your plants you should have no problem, just keep them watered.
