How to tame a grape vine?

DH has given up making wine from the grapes now and I seem to be the only one who eats the grapes as they have pips.

I did make a large quantity of grape jelly one year which was OK but not as nice or as strong-tasting as bramble or blackcurrant jellies.

The blackbirds like them though!

The ones you see in commercial vineyards abroad always look so well behaved!

So glad that I'm not the only rampant vine owner.

We do eat some of the grapes, but they're an old variety with seeds in them and the only person who doesn't mind that is my DP (he just eats the seeds, too, I think...)

We inherited two vines when we moved into our new house - one a red grape and the other white. They grow either sider of a big arch and meet in the middle. OH cits them back every year but in the growing season they are rampant. Throughout the year he cuts back the bushy bits not bearing grapes. After all the rain we've had they have exploded again, like a mad frizzy perm, all over the arch.

I think persistence is the key. OH started off by being careful where he cut them back - now he just goes for it to keep them slightly contained. E get lots and lots of grapes and this year we have decided to do something with them other than enjoy the odd few picked from a bunch when we are out in the garden. The birds love them too and when the grapes fall, the mess on the flag stones below is horrendous. If we don't get our act together and try making a few bottles of wine this year, we have decided we will cut down the many, many bunches of grapes and put them in big bowls and let the grandchildren trample them in their bare feet. Very rustic and maybe a learning/play experience?

Sorry I cannot give more advice, but I understand the problem. They seem to put on a yards growth overnight in this weather!

Our grapevines (2!) grow over our pergola, when ever they get too rampant, I just lay in to them with the garden shears.

I have just been round it for the second time this year, and will no doubt go at it again. We still end up with 30+pounds of grapes - and the same again that the birds eat.

Mine produces fruit in abundance every year!

Clearly I just have to keep cutting it back.

Thanks everyone.

This is what grapevines do!
Because of a scale infestation we cut ours down to a few feet from the ground.....it’s bounced back within the year.
We prune unwanted growth every two weeks.

They do tend to be rampant; DH does the same as you but the one in the greenhouse took over. He cut it right back a couple of years ago but it is growing again.

We also have one outside which he has to keep pruning and had to cut a lot out recently because a pair of pigeons were trying to nest in it and we didn't fancy the idea of noise just outside the window and mess all over the patio! I don't have an easy answer except to keep pruning or get rid of it altogether.

Our grapevine is in a very dilapidated greenhouse (waiting to be restored) and so has little shelter. It manages to produce leaves each year but no fruit. We leave it alone at present, just glad it's still alive.

When we lived in the warm south we bought a grapevine to grow up the garage. My visiting uncle offered to do some gardening as we were working. He cut the newly-planted, just getting settled, vine back to within and inch of its life. The next year it grew like crazy. Probably pruning your vine hard will do it the world of good and it'll grow again but take a while to get to world domination size.