Lovin Grapes

 

HARDWOOD CUTTINGS

The most common method of propagation is hardwood cuttings.  They can be made at anytime after leaf drop in the fall until the sap starts to flow in the spring.   There is a better chance of obtaining excellent callus formation if cuttings are prepared in the fall or early winter.  Excellent callus formation is critical to rapid root formation in the spring.  You can also obtain excellent results by making the cuttings a week or two before the sap rises in the spring and setting them out immediately.

-Cuttings made out of straight, vigorous, well-matured, one-year ancient canes with well-developed buds are best.
 
-They should be about pencil-size or slightly larger with four buds 2-3 inches apart. 

-The ideal completed cutting is about 8 to 12 inches long.

-Rooting hormone may be used to hasten callusing, leading to excellent root formation

As soon as there is no danger of frost, and when the ground has become warm in the spring, the soil should be prepared carefully to a depth of 8-12 inches.  The cuttings should be set in a row about 5-6 inches apart.  They should be deep enough so that only the top bud protrudes above the ground.  You must make sure that the soil is firm around the cutting.

Weed control is essential and can be done by hand, with herbicide or black plastic.  Irrigation is a must and required in most years.  If plastic is used, soil must be prepared in ridges, covered with plastic and cuttings planted through the plastic. 

Rooted cuttings can be dug up in the fall, graded and stored either by setting the roots in a trench in well- drained soil or stored under moist conditions at 34ºF.

 
LAYERING

Layering is used for certain varieties that do not root readily from cuttings.  

There are grape varieties that do not root readily. To propagate such a variety, the layering method is employed.  In this method, a narrow trench about 10 to 15 inches deep is dug in early spring where a new plant is desired.  A healthy cane originating close to the ground on a neighboring vine is bent down to the bottom of the trench and vertically back up to brings two or more tip buds above the soil surface.  To hasten rooting, the cane opposite each underground bud is wounded before the trench is filled.  When shoots emerge on the part of the cane connecting the new plant to the mother plant, they should be stripped as only the shoots from the buds of the protruding cane should be allowed to grow. 

The following spring, the rooted plants can be severed from the parent vine and set in their permanent location.

 
Grafting

Grafting, on the other hand, is mainly used by nurseries to establish a cultivar on different rootstocks.  They use healthy rootstocks and then graft vines onto them as they desire.  Rootstocks carry their own characteristics and they genereally are different than those of the cultivar that is grafted onto them.  This provides an extra measure of control over the growth of the plant, since the quality and characteristics of the resulting fruit are so vital.

Some of the primary reasons for using a rootstock are:

- To provide resistance to phylloxera and nematode parasites on the root system,

- To isolate the scion cultivar from soil-born virus diseases,

- To induce vigorous growth in a replant situation, and to avoid varietal susceptibility to lime-induced chlorosis.

Grafting involves taking the cultivar along with the rootstock and mating them together.  There are different ways to make the cut on both mating surfaces, but you must make sure the mating surfaces match up and make excellent contact.  If the mating surfaces are not precisely made, it will decrease the success of the graft.