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Grapes are very easy to grow from cuttings. With proper
care, a dormant cutting can be started in the spring and
by fall will give a vine large enough to bear a cluster
or two of fruit the next season. The important factors
are proper care and preparation of the cuttings.
Grapes can be grown from two
types of cuttings, dormant or hardwood, and green cuttings.
Dormant cuttings are the easiest to handle, but green cuttings
work in situations when it isn't possible to use hardwood,
such as for grapes that don't root easily from dormant cuttings,
or when green cuttings are all that are available.
DORMANT CUTTINGS
Dormant cuttings can be taken
any time after the vine has lost it's leaves until the buds
begin to swell in the spring. Cuttings are made from
the new shoots (canes) that grew the growing season that
just ended. The best wood is the first one to two
feet of the base of the shoot where the buds are closest
together, but any healthy, well matured section of the cane
will suffice. Ideal thickness is pencil diameter up to about
3/4 inch thick. Thicker cuttings can be hard to handle
and thinner wood may not be mature, though thinner wood
may be acceptable if the variety has naturally small shoots.
Avoid wood that is soft and spongy and has a large pith.
Best wood is dense and light green inside with relatively
small pith. (See Fig. 2) Cuttings should be
12 to 18 inches long, with the bottom cut off straight,
right below the bud, and the top cut diagonally, at least
1/2 inch above the bud to make it easy to identify the top,
insuring that the cutting will be planted right side up
(See Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. A. Best dormant
cutting, from base of cane, having 4 or more nodes (area
where the bud is located). B. Good cutting, having at least
3 nodes. C. Fair cutting, having only 2 nodes, though suitable
if cutting is otherwise healthy.
Some growers make the diagonal cut
on the bottom. Either way works. There should
be at least 3 buds (nodes) on the cutting, more if possible,
though two bud cuttings may serve in an emergency
(see fig 2).
Fig. 2. A. Cross-section
of poor cutting showing large, spongy pith, flattened cane,
and poorly matured, yellowish wood. B. Cross-section
of good, well-matured cutting showing small, tight pith
in center, round cross-section and dense, light green wood.
Rooting occurs best at the nodes,
hence the advantage in having several nodes per cutting.
If you take your own cuttings,
choose clean, healthy wood with no discolorations from fungus
or other disease, though fungus disease (black rot, downy
and powdery mildew, and anthracnose) will not harm the cuttings
if the wood well matured. Disinfect such cuttings
with a 5% chlorine bleach solution before growing them,
to keep disease from spreading into the nursery. Try
to observe the vine in bearing to be sure it is healthy
- some virus diseases can reduce crop, allowing the vine
to grow more, so it looks big and vigorous when
dormant, but is unfruitful. Vines grown from cuttings of
a virus-infected vine will also have the virus. If
possible, take cuttings after there has been enough cold
weather to kill any poorly ripened wood, to insure
getting mature wood. Bundle the cuttings with plastic
twine or insulated wire that won't rot or corrode and mark
them with plastic or other rot-resistant material.
Use metal or plastic tags with embossed letters or permanent
ink that won't wash off in moist conditions.
STORING CUTTINGS
Our cuttings arrive packed
for storage, allowing you to simply put them away until
you are ready for them.
When making your own cuttings,
wrap them in moist paper or pack them in material such as
damp peat, in a plastic bag.
Keep cuttings refrigerated
or store them in an unheated building, in the crawl space
under the house. Avoid places where they will freeze.
Freezing, per se will not harm them, but can take
water out and dessicate them. The ideal temperature
is 32-33o F (0-1oC). Properly stored, cuttings can be held
for as much as a year or more.
Large quantities of cuttings
can also be stored by burying them in pits of sand (to prevent
waterlogging) on the north side of a building. They are
buried upside down with 6 -18 inches of sand over
them, covered with tarps and boards. As spring arrives,
some or most of the sand is removed so the bottoms of the
cuttings warm and callus in preparation for planting (see
callusing).
CALLUSING
Callus is the white tissue
that forms on cut surfaces of the cutting, and can also
appear in lines along the sides of the cutting.
It is from callus that roots form. (See Fig 3 & 4)
Fig. 3. A. Callus
formation at bottom end of cutting, near the bud.
B. Same callus a day or two later when roots begin to show.
Fig. 4. Typical appearance
of cuttings that have been callused in a black plastic bag,
with roots at nodes, and in other areas along the cutting,
and thick white shoots pushing from buds.
Callus may not always be obvious,
but it must be there before roots develop. Once roots
start, they grow in cooler conditions than are needed
for callus to form. A grape cutting pushed into
soil will just sit until the soil is warm enough for callus
to form, so it usually only grows a few inches the
first year. But by pre-callusing the cuttings before
planting, they can grow much more than they would otherwise,
often enough to establish the trunk of the vine, if not
more.
A callused cutting planted
in it's permanent location, kept weeded, watered, and well
fertilized, can establish it's roots in place as it grows
a top and can often grow enough to allow it to bear a cluster
or two the next season. This has been done in commercial
vineyards in Oregon. Nursery-grown bareroot vines
have to grow a year to re-establish their roots, before
being trained up the second year, and can finally start
to bear the third year, a full year after a cutting planted
at the same time.
Before callusing,
be sure cuttings haven't dried in storage. Standing
them in an inch or two of water overnight will let
them "refill," improving rooting.
There are several methods
to callus cuttings, according to your situation. While rooting
hormone isn't absolutely necessary, it can hasten callusing
and increase the number of roots. A very good product
for the purpose is
Dip 'N' Grow
(see sources) used at medium strength.
Method
1. Small amounts of cuttings can be callused by wrapping
them in moist paper or sphagnum in a black plastic bag.
This is the way your cuttings arrive, so if they have been
stored properly, they are ready to callus. Put them
in a warm area that stays constantly at 80-85oF.
The top of a refrigerator is a good place as the waste heat
from the condenser collects there. Callusing should
occur in one to two weeks. Buds may push and produce white
sprouts, but this isn't harmful, though care should be taken
to avoid breakage as the cutting must use energy to grow
more shoots. Plant as soon as the cuttings are callused
and roots start to appear.
Method 2. Plant the cuttings in a pot of a mix of
3 parts perlite to 1 part peat, by volume. Set the
pot on a
heat mat
set to 85oF
(25oC),
in a cool area, or even outdoors in a protected area.
This heats the root zone and encourages callusing, but the
top of the cuttings, being in cool air, will not push buds
as readily. The idea is to get roots before buds push
too much so there is an existing root system to support
the new growth when it appears. Rooting occurs in one to
two weeks in most cases. See sources for a company that
sells heat mats.
Method 3. Plant the cuttings
in a one gallon black pot of the 3:1 perlite-peat mix and
set it in a sunny location where the pot can be warmed by
the sun. The pot should be no larger than one gallon
as the warming effect of the sun will penetrate a larger
pot too slowly. Avoid excess watering as that will
cool the mix and slow rooting. This is a slower method,
often taking as much as a month, and the buds will often
start to grow before the roots are formed, but it works
well enough for home use. .
Larger
quantities of cuttings can be bundled in lots of 50 - 100
and rooted in the 3:1 perlite peat mix in benches with bottom
heat (heat cables or hot water pipes) set at 80 - 85oF
(25oC)
in the root zone. Ideally, beds should be outdoors or in
an unheated, or even refrigerated, room to retard sprouting
of the buds while the cuttings callus and root, as
in method #2. This reduces the likelihood of shoots
that can break off during planting.
PLANTING
Cuttings callus and root in
a short time, so don't start callusing until the planting
site is ready so the cuttings can be planted immediately.
Once cuttings have a ring of callus on the base, or roots
are starting to appear, it's time to plant them.
Cuttings may be planted: 1.
directly in the spot where you plan to grow the vine; 2.
in a nursery row where you can grow them until fall, then
transplant the vine when it is dormant; 3. in a pot.
In the last case, you can start cuttings early in the year,
then transplant them into their permanent location from
the pot as spring advances, or even grow them in the pot
all summer and set them out in the fall, if fall planting
is possible in your area.
If you lack means to keep
the young vines watered in the permanent location, it is
better to grow vines in a nursery or pot and transplant
them as dormant vines, which are able to take more stress
when they are planted in the permanent location.
Plant cuttings with half or
more of their length in the soil to help protect them from
dessication. In very hot, dry areas the cuttings can
be covered with a mound of loose soil at first.
Keep the soil loose and watch for buds breaking through.
When buds start to grow, pull the soil mound away from them.
If some of the roots or shoots
break during planting, it isn't a disaster, but avoid it
if possible as the cutting must expend energy to grow more.
If white shoots die or rot back a bit, new shoots
will start from the base of the old shoot.
Water an inch or more a week
until the shoots get to six inches long, then start using
a weekly feeding of a balanced organic fertilizer, such
as fish (mixed according to directions) or a liquid chemical
fertilizer such as 16-16-16. Before the shoots are
about 6 inches long, the roots are not developed well enough
to get full benefit from fertilizer. If you use drip
irrigation, the fertilizer can be applied in the water.
Stop fertilizing by mid summer and reduce or stop water
soon after that to allow the vine to harden before frost.
I have used
mycorrhizal
fungi with my grapes
and find that these types of fungi, which associate with
the roots and help the plant take up nutrients, are a definite
benefit to the plants. They can be applied directly
to the roots or watered in after planting. Applying
them to the roots before planting seems to have the most
effect. If
you do use the fungi, stay with a strictly organic fertilizer
as chemical types will inhibit or destroy the fungi.
See sources for more information.
GREEN (SOFTWOOD) CUTTINGS
Green cuttings are used mainly
with grapes that do not root from dormant cuttings, such
as varieties derived from Vitis lincecumii or V. aestivalis
(such as "Norton"), or Muscadine grapes (Muscadinia rotundifolia),
or when dormant cuttings are not available. Muscadine
grapes started from green cuttings have a success rate of
70 to 80% versus 1 to 2 % from dormant cuttings. Green cuttings
can also be used to multiply a variety quickly, as noted
farther on.
Make green cuttings from any
vigorously growing shoot. Avoid shoots that have stopped
growing and are starting to harden off and turn brown.
Take cuttings as early as possible in the spring to give
the young vine extra time to harden off, unless you can
keep the vine in a greenhouse. Cuttings should be
4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) long, with two or three
leaves. Remove all but the top leaf and cut that one
in half if it is full size, but leave it alone if it is
a young, undersized leaf (See Fig. 5). Cuttings with
no leaves at all very seldom root.
Fig. 5. A. green cutting having
three nodes, with small leaf left intact. B. Green
cutting with large leaf cut in half to reduce transpiration
(water loss) from leaf surface.
Dip
the green cutting in
rooting hormone
(see sources) and plant in the same 3:1 perlite peat mix
used for dormant cuttings. The ideal place to plant
is in mist bench with a heat cable in the bottom of it to
hold temperatures at 85oF (25oC) in the root zone.
Done this way, the cuttings will usually root in 6-9 days
and be ready to pot up. Keep them under mist or in
high humidity for a few days until the new roots can keep
the plant from wilting. When held in a greenhouse and forced
with extra fertilizer, the new vine can itself provide material
for more cuttings within two or three weeks. With
this system of using each new batch of rooted plants as
sources of more material, a few cuttings can become thousands
in six weeks.
A simpler alternative
is to use a one gallon black plastic pot, with a clear plastic
bag over it, supported by wires (see Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Black plastic
one gallon pot with plastic bag supported by wires, held
on with rubber band, to form a humid chamber where
green cuttings can be rooted
This
creates a humid chamber that keeps the cuttings from wilting
until they root. If the pot is warmed by sunlight,
rooting is slower since the pot cools at night and may take
three weeks to a month. If the pot is sent on a
heat
mat , to keep the
heat constant, rooting is faster.
Vines started from green cuttings
need more protection when set in the vineyard and should
be surrounded by a bottomless milk carton or other device
to shade it until it can withstand direct sunlight.
Either way you do it, your
new grapes will give you pleasure for as many years as you
want.
Sources:
Grape Cuttings
LON J. ROMBOUGH, B.S., M.S.,
ATM.
P.O. Box 365
Aurora, Oregon 97002-0365 U.S.A.
E-mail:
lonrom@hevanet.com
URL:
http://www.hevanet.com/lonrom
Phone (503) 678-1410
Mycorrhizal
Fungi Source:
T&J Enterprises
BioVam mycorrhiza
2328 W. Providence Ave.
Spokane, Wa 99205
Ph: 509-327-7670
thomas@tandjenterprises.com
Instructions for applying BioVam Mycorrhiza to grape cuttings.
Heat
Mat
For local distributors contact:
Bird-X,
Inc.
300 N. Elizabeth St.
Chicago IL 60607
800-662-5021 fax 312-226-2480
http://www.bird-x.com
Rooting
Hormone
Dip'N' Grow - available in
garden stores, or contact:
Astoria-Pacific, Inc.
Clackamas, OR. 97015-0830
1-800-536-3111
FAX: 503-655-7367
ZipSet Pots
- very nice system of paper pots and collapsable flats for
rooting cuttings in combinations with the heat mat from
Hydrofarm. Pots can be left on the cuttings when planted.
2 x 2 x 6 inch pots work well with cuttings. These
pots are available from:
The Monarch Company
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