Once upon a time on usenet Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
"Terry Coombs" wrote:

Someone in another group I read wants to move some 100 year old
grape vines . Any chance of success ? My understanding is that they
root very deeply , wondered if that would make it difficult to avoid
transplant shock


I have not done it (yet) but I poked around a bit and found several
success stories of moving huge old vines (prune the vine back hard,
first, seems to be a common theme.) Cuttings are easier to handle, but
the old vine will be back to fruiting faster. Remember that grapes
fruit off of new wood and require fairly hard pruning to produce well.

Timing will also matter - you are likely near (or past) the end of the
"spring window" for moving them, and long past the best time for
pruning (dead of winter.) Fall is probably a better time to move, so
the roots can re-establish over the winter. Moving them with leaves
on seems doubtful in the extreme.

You'll be losing a good deal of root material (I don't know how deep
they go, but they certainly go wide, based on the ones I find) but
that will re-grow as well.

Grapevines are one of the deepest rooting plants. In certain soils /
shingles the roots have been found deeper than 50 feet.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)