Feeding Grape vines

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aolsz

aolsz

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I am considering growing Grapevines for rabbit food.

I see that Concord Grapes appear to be the easiest to grow in the northern US. Concord are a different species than European grapes -- Vitis labrusca and Vitis vinifera. Are both equally palatable to rabbits? In terms of food, is there any advantage to the European varieties?

https://www.wcny.org/growing-grapes-in-new-york/
 
While grape leaves are edible, and my grandmother always put a grape leaf on the top of each jar of pickles before she canned it (and I love Greek stuffed grape leaves), there is an issue with cutting grape vines off for browse. The stems can bleed copiously when cut during the growing season, reducing the vitality of the vine. When Is a Good Time to Prune Grape Vines? gives some hints on pruning grapes during the growing season. (They are usually pruned in late winter, I'm sure the bunnies would enjoy sections of vine then.)

How to Harvest and Preserve Fresh Grape Leaves has more information on picking and storing grape leaves. Perhaps you'd get better yield if you only picked the leaves during the growing season, and then fed out the vines from the winter pruning? According to Grape leaves and vine shoots | Feedipedia grape vine cuttings and leaves left over from the grape harvest are regularly fed to stock. According to Grape leaves and vine shoots | Feedipedia the leaves have twice the protein content (7-14%) as the vines. They do not have any specific studies there about feeding grape vines to rabbits, but they have valid concerns about being sure the grapes are not being sprayed.
 
Concord tends to be a very hardy, very strong growing vine, able to survive for decades without any special care, unlike many of the other commercial grapes. (Besides making fabulous grape juice.) I'd go for the Concord, personally. (It's the one we used in our pickles.) For leaf tenderness, the one article I mentioned above preferred Thompson Seedless, but those aren't reliably hardy.
 
May as well grow grapevines for jam, jelly & wine as well as for bunny food? Pick a variety you like to eat as well as feed to buns?
 
If you are looking for something that grows like crazy and the rabbits love, grow chayote squash. The more you prune the vines, which are crisp, juicy and crunchy, the faster it grows. You only need one or two plants to supplement several rabbits. All of the plant is edible and if you are lucky enough to get the squash to grow, they are good eating for you. I usually prune them too much to get squash. You can grow them as annuals or in zone 8, maybe zone 7 in a protected area, they are perennial and will get bigger every year.
 
Skai said:
If you are looking for something that grows like crazy and the rabbits love, grow chayote squash. The more you prune the vines, which are crisp, juicy and crunchy, the faster it grows. You only need one or two plants to supplement several rabbits. All of the plant is edible and if you are lucky enough to get the squash to grow, they are good eating for you. I usually prune them too much to get squash. You can grow them as annuals or in zone 8, maybe zone 7 in a protected area, they are perennial and will get bigger every year.
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We call it choko here in NZ and it will grow out of control with no encouragement. Are the fruit (squash) rabbit-edible as well as the vines?
 
shellz said:
We call it choko here in NZ and it will grow out of control with no encouragement. Are the fruit (squash) rabbit-edible as well as the vines?
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I haven't fed the squash to our rabbits since we don't get many due to heavily pruning the vines. Any squash we get, we eat. However, I have fed chunks of winter squash to the buns. They nibble on it. Don't seem to be crazy about it. I haven't tried feeding summer-type squash but I have read that rabbits can eat it so I would imagine chayote would be OK.
 

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