[JohnE]

Anyone grow grapes from cuttings? I have 3 good sized (Pencil thick, aboot 2 feet long ea.) cuttings from my buddies grape arbor. Need to nurture them inside for a few weeks before transpalanting them outside...anyone ever do this before? Helpful hints are appreciated...

 

[stoney]

I did many years ago while in SoCal. Save your time and go straight to a gardening/wine making site. They are difficult to start and require lots of maintenance at first. You need pro help on this one.

 

[boostindoubles]

If you have access to rooting hormone, paint that on the bottom of the cuttings. Then wrap wet potting soil or peat around the cuttings and wrap that in a moist paper towel or the like. Put it in a bag and place it in the fridge or other cool, dark place. Make sure the moistness is maintained but don't drown them. A couple weeks before your ready to plant them outside, prep some potters and plant those cuttings in the pots, putting them in a warm place, preferably on a heat mat. After a week or two they should root and once that happens they are ready to go outside.

Thats the long version. If you want to skip the fridge, just dip them in rooting hormone and plant in a pot that is in a warm place, keeping the soil moist.

Our farm is involved in a large concord grape planting. We planted 40 acres last spring to grow plants on the ground and are currently setting trellis and irrigation. When you eat Smuckers jam, think of me!

 

[boostindoubles]

Another thing that may help is when your applying the hormone, or planting, cut 1/2 inch off the bottom, exposing fresh wood for contact with the growing medium. The fresh wood will root better than if you planted the dried out cut.

 

[JohnE]

...but I was told to look for root nodules, wont this eliminate them?

 

[boostindoubles]

Ok did some reading and you are correct. I was thinking of some other crops...

 

[JohnE]

Thanks!

 

[JohnE]

Weather here has been for sh!t lately...holding them in the basement in the cool dark for another week. Hope to get some good sun then...going to plant them facing east, with some good potting soil and eggshells and other organic garbage for fertilizer.

 

[boostindoubles]

They'll probably be fine. Grapes are pretty resilient once they get going. We've got some old vines that have climbed tall trees. It's weird to see grape bunches 20ft up in a tree .

We are planting some fruit this spring too, except its 18,000 Gala apple bench-grafts. The trees are in a cold storage room that was held at 37 degrees F. We are planting in two weeks and have started bringing the temps up to 48-50 so they'll be starting to grow when they go in the ground. Weather here has been pretty nice though!