Why are branches falling off my concord grape? - Ask Extension
We have a well established concord grape plant, it has been in place for 5 years. In its first year, it produced a bit. In years 2 and 3, it was quite...
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Why are branches falling off my concord grape? #634555
Asked May 12, 2020, 2:24 PM EDT
We have a well established concord grape plant, it has been in place for 5 years. In its first year, it produced a bit. In years 2 and 3, it was quite prolific in terms of both plant growth and fruit production. In year 4 (last year), we had a problem where branches seemed to just fall off over night, thus limiting our fruit production significantly. So far this year, the between 5 - 10 branches have fallen off already. I will include photos of the most recently branch and of the main plant where it broke off.
My husband prunes the grape plant every winter. It receives full sun and climbs onto our deck.
Multnomah County Oregon
Expert Response
Thank you for your question. Initially, I thought you might have an animal interested invading your plant, but the blackening of the vascular system in the right photo concerned me. So, I asked our system's head plant psychologist, Prof. Jay Pscheidt, for his input:
"This time of year the connection of the new grape shoots to the canes it not very strong. You can just go up to them and knock them off with your finger. But very quickly, as the plant matures, the vascular connections get so strong you would have to clip them off with a pruner to remove them. In the vineyard, we use this to our advantage. We thin shoots to adjust the crop or remove sucker shoots that would interfere with various operations this time of year. It is so easy now, and so hard later on.
"This time of year the connection of the new grape shoots to the canes it not very strong. You can just go up to them and knock them off with your finger. But very quickly, as the plant matures, the vascular connections get so strong you would have to clip them off with a pruner to remove them. In the vineyard, we use this to our advantage. We thin shoots to adjust the crop or remove sucker shoots that would interfere with various operations this time of year. It is so easy now, and so hard later on.
I suspect they had a storm move through or something similar that knocked off shoots last year. The dripping is just due to the pressure the canes have almost any time of year. Even if you cut a cane while pruning just before bud break they can drip away for several days.
Bottom line – all normal for a grapevine."
So, the best expert we have says not to worry. Good luck!
