I’m hoping someone here can give me some advice concerning an old…very old…grapevine growing in my yard. (My wife & I have been living in our house nearly 30 years, and the vine was old when we moved in, to give you an idea of age. The trunk is approx. 7-8” in diameter at ground level. We’ve even speculated that the vine may have been planted soon after the house was built, around 1918 – though I have no idea if that’s realistic.)

Ten years or so ago, the grape was tentatively identified (by someone at a HOS event) as a Niagara. It’s a white slip-skin grape with large seeds. I’ve made juice, jelly, and (my favorite) catsup from the grapes, but neither my wife nor I particularly care for the grapes themselves.

Here’s my dilemma: We live in NE Portland, OR, on a 50x100 lot. The vine is in my backyard, only a few feet away from the fence line. If I don’t prune the grape back so severely each year that it doesn’t really produce a usable “crop”, the vines grow too prolifically, 20-30 feet in a season, growing into my quince tree, over the fence and into my neighbor’s apple tree & Japanese maple, up onto the roofs of both houses… And if I do prune it back so excessive growth isn’t an issue, and it only produces a few bunches of grapes, what’s the point?

In short, it’s kind of a nuisance.

In discussing what to do about this situation with my wife, we realized that, perhaps overly romantically, we’re keeping the grape around largely because it is so old. It seems a shame to get rid of a healthy, living thing that old. But we are tired of dealing with it.

So, some questions:

If there a way to keep the vine under control and still get grapes? (Spring and summer are very busy times for me…it seems like all it takes is a few weeks of not paying attention for the vines to get out of control.)

Could this vine be transplanted (without using a backhoe, since there’s no way to get one back there)?

If so, any suggestions what to do with the vine then?

Or should I just call it done and get rid of the vine this fall after I’ve harvested a final crop?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions….