How to Kill a Grapevine
Grapevines provide delicious, juicy fruit that is commonly used to create grape juice and wine. Although highly prized for its fruit and shading abilities, a well-established grapevine may prove a nuisance. California wild grape (Vitis californica) and its close cousins, "Roger's Red" and "Walker Ridge," are native to California and Oregon and thrive in Sunset Climate Zones 4 through 24. With vines that grow to more than 30 feet, they may quickly invade a landscape. Regular pruning helps to control the vast growth, but killing a grapevine is the only way to ensure it doesn't continue to invade its surroundings.
Cut the vines with lopping shears, a machete or similar tool in as many places as possible, including around the base of the vine and in its canopy. This helps control the spread of the vine but doesn't kill grapevines at the root.
Cover the grapevine canopy with shade to restrict sunlight. Grapevines require full sunlight for growth, so shading the area helps kill the vines faster and prevents the future growth of sprouts.
Mix 1 gallon of herbicide treatment with a ratio of 15-percent triclopyr or glyphosate herbicide to 85-percent fuel oil, such as diesel fuel oil or vegetable oil. Pour the herbicide into a garden sprayer first, fill with fuel oil or vegetable oil and then shake vigorously to mix the ingredients. You can also purchase herbicides that are ready-mixed with oil to avoid mixing your own.
Add 1 ounce of spray-marking dye to the mixture, if desired, to make it easier to identify treated grapevines.
Spray the foliage and vines to thoroughly coat them with the herbicide and oil mixture. The oil helps to coat the leaves so the herbicide is absorbed into the plant. If you use marking dye in the mixture, it colors the leaves to help you identify parts of the grapevine that have already been sprayed. The foliage and vines slowly die, making it easier to pull down the vines.
Cut or pull the vines out of trees or their climbing structures as the foliage dies. Pulling them down before killing the foliage is often difficult because the small tendrils grasp tightly to the climbing structures.
Cut the trunk of the vine in early fall with a pruning saw, leaving about 12 inches protruding from the ground. Although this procedure may be done at any time of year, it is most effective in fall when the plant concentrates it energy to its roots in preparation for winter.
Spray the protruding trunk with the herbicide mixture, concentrating your efforts on the fresh cut in the trunk. The herbicide affects the surface where it is applied and draws the herbicide into the roots through the open cut. Treating the roots ensures that no new growth emerges.
Repeat spray application to the leaves and trunk each spring and fall as needed until the vine is completely dead. Continue pulling out dead sections of the vine sporadically until the area is clear.
- Lopping shears or machete
- Shade cloth
- Garden sprayer
- Diesel fuel oil or vegetable oil
- Spray-marking dye
- Pruning saw
- Grapevines left uncontrolled in the wild can quickly take over an ecosystem; grapevine invasion is a major problem throughout the eastern United States. They tangle and kill trees, invade tree canopies and smother other plants that may be food for natural wildlife. If you'd like to add grapevines to your landscape, choose only native species that have environmental controls to keep them in balance.
- Herbicides may also be mixed with water instead of oil, but the oil helps to coat the leaves for faster vine control.
- Different herbicide products work in basically the same way, but there may be vast differences in the concentration of different products. Always read the product label carefully before mixing the herbicide treatment to ensure you achieve the proper ratio of herbicide to oil or water.
- University of California Sonoma County Master Gardeners: Vitis californica--California Wild Grape
- Sunset: Vitis californica
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service: Forest Management Guidelines for Controlling Wild Grapevines
- Crawford Conservation: Cut Your Grapevines!!!!
- Ag Web: Do It Yourself Brush and Weed Control
- Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images