Growing grapes with cuttings at home - a short guide for beginner winegrowers
A seedling of a good varietal grape with a developed root system costs good money. For this amount, you can buy a whole bunch of cuttings, and even better - if you already have grapes that need to be propagated. Breeding grapes with cuttings at home is the best way to acquire a large number of new plants in a short time. You will get a lot of planting material after pruning the vineyard. So you can save a lot. In addition, bushes grown from cuttings will begin to bear fruit a year earlier. When grafting in the open field, you will receive a full-fledged seedling only by autumn. And if you root the shanks indoors in early spring, then by the summer they will already grow roots.
Breeding grapes with cuttings at home
Cuttings from a mature vine are stronger, they root better and develop faster. But on condition that the vine was prepared and planted on time and properly stored.
Experienced growers practice spring rooting of cuttings. But they are harvested in the fall. Of course, you can immediately plant planting material in the school in the fall, but the result will be many times worse. Some of the cuttings that did not have time to rest and ripen will die of weakness, and the rest will be "finished off" by frost. Therefore, it is best to cut the vine in the fall, in order to root it in cups in early spring.
When to harvest cuttings for growing grapes
As already noted, the vine should not only be good, but fully ripen and accumulate a sufficient supply of nutrients. They will "feed" the future seedling and give it strength to grow roots and new shoots.
It is recommended to harvest cuttings after the first frost, at the end of autumn. To do this, select a mature vine with a diameter of at least 8 mm, preferably its lower part (1/3 of the total length). If possible, store the entire cut shoot. Or immediately cut it into cuttings, each of which should have at least 3 buds.
How and where to store cuttings
The material should be stored in a cool place until spring. Then he will pass a dormant period, like the vine on the bushes in the vineyards. And so that the shoots do not disappear and do not rot, process them copper sulfate and dry well after that.
Moisture loss can be prevented by "plugging" the cut with a paraffin plug. To do this, dip the tips of the cuttings in molten paraffin.
There are several ways to store grape cuttings until rooting, using for this:
- Basement. Place the vines in crates and cover them with wet sand, or simply stick them in a bucket of sand.You can simply wrap the cuttings in plastic and put them on the shelf.
- Fridge. This method is suitable if there is no basement and there are few cuttings. Roll them up in plastic and place them on the bottom shelf.
- Open ground. Dig a trench, put prepared cuttings in it and cover with earth. If the winters are cold, additionally cover the trench.
Cuttings are stored until the end of winter, and already in February you can take out and root them. Use cut plastic bottles with a capacity of at least 1 liter for this. But first, soak the grapes in water for a day so that it wakes up faster. Place the planted cuttings in a warm and bright place. And closer to the beginning of summer, the seedlings can already be planted in the ground for permanent residence.