# vines



## nitetime (May 11, 2006)

I bought some land and I have lot's of vines growing up the trees and I'm worried about the vines choking the trees. If I cut the vines will they just grow back or do I need to spray them in the spring.

thanks


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## Patman75 (Jan 11, 2012)

They will grow back. Need to spray.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

X2. Also, you should make sure you know exactly what KIND of vines they are. Poison Ivy often vines up trees. You would address that problem a bit differently than you would Wild Grapevines. :yikes: Much more carefully. I have used a chainsaw on a tree that was covered with P.I. Trust me, you don't want to do it. No amount of protective clothing will keep you safe.


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## shoelessjoe (Dec 13, 2012)

I plant vines at every tree stand and around ground blinds. They grow up the tree and camo me and my stands. Same with ground blinds, I attach lattice a 1/2 inch away from the side walls, and they completely engulf the blind. Cut out the windows and door and looks like it belongs.


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## mi duckdown (Jul 1, 2006)

What fishdude posted. Got to know what that plant/vine is.


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## wild bill (Apr 20, 2001)

i have included vine cutting into my winter habitat work the past few years. i use a pair of shears and cut them at ground level and again as high up as i can reach. when i first started cutting them i had trees that pretty much looked dead and after one summer they were healthy and full looking again.


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## Wendy (Oct 6, 2008)

WHOoooooooo.... first and worse case of PI I ever had, cuting down "mystery" vines.... LOL!

Ivy vines are semi smooth barked, and rooty where they like to hug and root onto the tree..








where grape are more loose barked (almost shaggy) and kind knotted and jointed.. they loop and hang loosely and use small vine brances to wrap around tree branches etc for support.









Btw, goats like to eat them both! They've helped clear out a few small patchs of PI and grape vines in my property! BONUS!! LOL!


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## StevenJ (Feb 11, 2009)

The vines will choke out the canopy of trees and make the trees less viable.
In my opinion you can just cut grape vines in the winter and leave them be. It will either take a while for the grapes to grow back or they will be too shaded to grow back. Grapes provide food for deer browse and fruit for birds and other wildlife. Just cut them at shoulder height with a pruner in the winter and leave them.

All poison ivy should be killed. Cut the vines carefully in the winter and treat the cut end with Tordon RTU. Use a small plastic applicator bottle. Underneath large poison ivy vines are volunteers from the berry seeds dropping each year. Go back and spray the small shoots of poison ivy in the spring when they start to leaf out with Triclopyr or other poison ivy killer.


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## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

HOLY COW!!!!!! That is probably one of the biggest PI vines I have ever seen!! :yikes:


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## GullLkRltr (Dec 13, 2005)

Great Topic - VINES... I've cut so many over the years I had the nickname "VineMan" :lol: While the Grape, Poison Ivy, and Virginia Creeper are all Bad The toughest and most destructive to me is the Bittersweet Vine. 
That's the one that shoots up like a cable and "wraps" around a tree with coils so tough they cut right into the trunk. Once established at the base of a tree there will often be 20 or more young shoots that will coil around each other and follow the original vine up the tree literally choking and it taking over:rant:


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## eucman (Jan 24, 2009)

Ditto about the bittersweet, but that is Oriental Bittersweet that is the problem. It will definitely kill a tree in short order once it starts to take hold. We spray the cut vine surface with a 50% a.i. solution of glyphosate. The grapevine, virginia creeper and poison ivy do have some wildlife benefits.


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## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

That bittersweet is a mess. We have it in some of our pines. Have to cut it out every fall . On the note of the virginia creeper, we have a pileated woodpecker that comes through at 6pm every evening to eat the berries off our vine.


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