On 10/13/12 12:40 AM, aberdeen wrote:
'David E. Ross[_2_ Wrote:
;970715']On 10/12/12 5:44 AM, echinosum wrote:-
aberdeen;970688 Wrote: -
Hello, am new to this forum. My hubby and I have just moved to a new
house and are unsure about this tree in our garden.

Initially I thought it may have been Elder, but now not so sure.-
The green berries are grapes, as I hope you realise, they have
specific
pruning requirements, but I guess you are not asking about those. The
white berries are I presume what you are asking about. They something
in the Sorbus family, closely related to a rowan. Sorbus with white
berries are often S fruticosa or S cashmeriana, but there are other
possibilities. But knowing it is a sorbus fairly similar to a rowan is
probably enough for you.

You don't normally prune them very much except if you need to reduce
it
or repair damage. Prune it when dormant in the winter, don't reduce
it
too much at once, try to keep it balanced, would seem to be sensible.-

If the grape vine is growing on the tree, you have a problem. Grape
vines can become very heavy to the extent of breaking the tree. From
your photo, I believe the grape vine is quite mature and thus quite
heavy.


David, thanks I think you may be right. The vines don't seem to be
spread out in any logical formation. Just hanging heavily from thick
woody stems diect from the main trunk.

I would think that the only way to stop the lower branches collapsing
would be to cut back to the wood, then I would be afraid that would
damage it.

The other vines heading up will soon be hanging into our neighbours
garden. We will really need to cut them back, and again not sure how
much to take off??

If you want to keep the grape vine, you can still prune it severely.
You can even cut it about 3 ft (0.9 m) from the ground in mid-winter.
That will stop it from fruiting for about 2-3 years, but it will allow
you to train the new growth onto a proper support.

My grapes use steel pipes and wire rope for their support. See my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_grapes.html. If you follow this
same arrangement, the pipes and wire should preferably run north-south
so that the sun shines equally on both sides. Unfortunately, I had to
run mine east-west because of the steep slope on which my vines grow.
One vine produced about 5 gallons of grapes this year.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary