I have been searching Google and Goole Images for a while, and cannot figure out what this is:

Funky growth on our grapevine

Funky growth on our grapevine

I just saw it yesterday. It’s growing on the stem of one of the grapes planted on our chain link fence. Here’s another shot:

funky growth on grapevine

It is very similar to the seed pods that grow on bur cucumbers (a related vine). I haven’t seen seed pods like this on grapes before, so I’m thinking it’s some kind of gall (growth), maybe caused by an injury. (And it definitely is growing on the grape vine, not a weed mixed in!)

I don’t know what kind of grape this is, unfortunately. We put in more than 100 vines from Great River Vineyard, and alternated varieties to keep the look visually similar on the green fence (eventually). We also had a few varieties from Bachman’s that we put in a few years earlier, and some that were transplanted from The Vineyard, a restaurant in Anoka that closed.

This is on an older vine, and I am going to guess it’s a Concord grape (which are the ones from Bachman’s). The grapes aren’t ripe yet, but here’s what they look like:

Grapes growing on the fence

I’m hoping someone can shed some light on what this is! I’m tempted to cut it open, but I also want to see what happens to it as the weeks go by.

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22 Responses

  1. Sue

    We found the same thing on one of our “wild” grape vines… if you find out what it is let us know! We are in southwestern Ontario.

  2. I don’t recall the exact term for it – but I think it is basically the plant’s mechanism for covering a scrape/scar. The grapes from the vine were just fine and we actually ended up seeing a couple more of these. But I haven’t seen one yet this year, and this one didn’t survive the winter. So it’s harmless, in any case!

  3. Torre Wolf

    This is a gall caused by a waps stinging the vine and planting its larve into those sacks.

  4. Wasp larve? Very interesting!! I actually found a couple more (on different vines) this summer. Thanks for the comment, Torre!

  5. Dusty

    I just found one of these on one of my backyard vines. . . are we sure this is a wasp gall? If so, will I have tons of wasps to deal with if I don’t do anything about this?

  6. I really don’t think it is from wasps. We have a bunch of these again this year, and I picked one apart and saw no evidence of anything living in it. Though admittedly I don’t know what wasp larvae look like…it just seemed to be plant mass to me.

  7. Rose

    I have green grapes as well. Not sure the kind. Also in south western Ontario. I have been trying to figure this out as well. Quite a weird plant mass.

  8. Tammy

    I just found one and my search on the internet brought up the possibilty that it is a gall produced by a midge (a type of fly) called a Grape Tumid Gall Maker (Janetiella brevicauda).

  9. kathleen weber

    I found a similar cluster in our vineyard in Eastern NY and contacted Cornell. They wrote that it was tomato gall, and is produced by larvae of gall midge flies (family cecidomyidae) and was nothing to worry about.

  10. Jeb Lucht

    I’m glad I stumbled on your conversation. I was just searching to find out what these were also. I have 3 clusters of these things on my vines just north of Milwaukee, WI. They are only on my edelwiess grapes which are planted right next to all the other varieties. My Edelwiess grapes look just like your picture too. I’m glad everyone is saying it’s safe because I”m going to hack off these ugly things soon and was hoping I wouldn’t get attacked by some bug!!!

  11. Mary lambert

    They are all over the wild vines along the river here in Chaska Minnesota …never saw them before

  12. Willowite

    I also have something like this near me!

    I need to go back to confirm its on a grape vine, but at the time I took the picture I felt pretty sure it was on grape. The picture I took is zoomed into the fruit/gall with only an inch or so of non-descript vine poking out either side, so its hard to confirm from the picture.

    Mine doesnt have that strange hair/film on it like in the picture, above. Its a perfectly shiny red, and a cluster of 15 or so of these things that look a lot like pomegranate seeds on the vine. they are clustered into a ball and almost centered onto the vine.
    It also looks a little bit like a wild onion seed cluster.

    The tomato gall and tumid gall pictures that I search dont look like what I have. Its definitely on the vine, not near a leaf.

  13. Rob L

    I have many of same on my concord grape vines. I found on another site that it is the grape tumid gall.

  14. Gabriel

    One cluster of the pointed-type pods was growing on my wild grapevine in Michigan. After cutting it off the vine, the pods separated easily however, I found only vegetation inside.

  15. Dennis

    just found these today on my grapes in central minnesota. I’ve never seen them before here. Thanks for the discussion!

  16. Cathy

    That is a great photo of a Grape Filbert Gall caused by the gall maker midge Schizomyia coryloides.

  17. Cathy Beaudoin

    I see that this is an old post, but I believe that your funky growth is a grape filbert gall. Saw one the other day here in Brantford, Ontario

  18. Jeff

    This day 7/15/2019 just found non-hairy green starburst-like growth on grape vine in central Ohio; in simple dissection found growth mass green causing s-shaped kink in vine wrap-around.

  19. Steve K

    I discovered several of these galls on my Frontenac vines while cleaning up black rot mummies, I have removed them and burn them.

  20. Darin Wiseman

    These are “Grape Hazelnut Galls” , or “Grape Filbert Galls” created by a gall-midge fly named: Ampelomyia vitiscoryloides.

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