How to Grow Grapes from Cuttings? Grapevines are truly a never-ending gift. To propagate as many cuttings as you want, all you need is a pair of pruning scissors, some deep pots, and potting soil. Not to add, they’re one of the simplest plants to reproduce, whether you start in the winter or the middle of summer. I’ll walk you through two of the most common methods for producing grapes from cuttings.
The first method, which is the most user-friendly, is taking hardwood cuttings (also known as dormant wood). This method works effectively for most grape varieties and has a 70 to 80% success rate, even for inexperienced growers.
The second approach, which is ideal for those with a green thumb who enjoy a challenge, includes taking greenwood cuttings from the plant during the active growing season of the grapevine. While it is more difficult, some grape varietals, such as muscadines and pigeon grapes, can only be grown using greenwood cuttings.
Whatever way you choose, the odds are that you’ll be rewarded with numerous fresh new plants for your efforts. Growing grapes from cuttings is extremely rewarding, and your winter grape pruning can yield hundreds of grape vines.
I’ve discovered that the entire process, from pruning to regrowth, has been an enthralling homeschool activity for my children to participate in and learn from throughout the growing season.
How to Grow Grapes from Cuttings?
You can propagate grape cuttings using either hardwood or greenwood cuttings. During the winter, hardwood cuttings are collected from dormant woody vines of grapevines, and greenwood cuttings are taken from still-green vines of blooming green plants. Despite the fact that the clippings appear very different, the procedure for propagating each form of cutting is really identical.
1. Hardwood Cuttings to Grow Grapes
Hardwood cuttings, which are plucked from dormant grapevines in the fall and winter, resemble sticks. At first glance, it’s difficult to image the cuttings growing, let alone flourishing, but with a little TLC, you’ll be surprised at how the cuttings evolve over time. You can use grapevine cuttings left over from pruning, or you can purposely remove certain portions of the plant for propagation.
To begin, examine the stems you intend to propagate, paying special attention to where the plant nodes are located. Using a sharp pair of pruning shears, take cuttings from the stems, being careful to leave one or two leaf nodes on the remaining branch so that the grapevines continue to grow and remain healthy after the stems are removed. A cellar or the crisper drawer of your refrigerator works great for this; just wrap them in plastic and store them with damp shavings or newspaper to keep them from drying out.
You have two alternatives for soil preparation: callus the cuttings or dip them in a rooting hormone shortly before planting the stems in a deep container. You can go ahead and prepare the stems for planting if you’re already familiar with the callusing procedure, which entails exposing the cut base to wet heat until it begins to mend and produce roots. Moist “heat” is more like room temperature than heat. They’ll be hot because they’ve been in cold storage for a while.
I actually like dipping the roots in a rooting hormone, which is a lot simpler and more reliable procedure. Rather than waiting for the cut side to callus, you can immediately dip the stems in rooting hormones before planting the cuttings 2 to 3 inches deep in moist potting soil.
After planting, give the cuttings a good watering and keep the soil moist while they grow. Keep the grape cuttings in pots indoors until the growth season begins. I keep them in our adjacent greenhouse until it’s time to replant them outside, but a sunny windowsill works just as well. At this early stage, when the plants lack adequate roots, you don’t want them to get too hot and dry.
Alternatively, you can plant the cuttings in a vase with a little rooting hormone dissolved in water. Make sure to change the water every few days to keep it from becoming gross/slimy/moldy. Grapes require clean, fresh water on a regular basis to prevent plant disease, but they will root just well in water without soil. When you observe roots forming in water, it’s time to get those plants into soil. The water contains no nutrients, and they will require genuine soil to develop correctly in the long run.
Make sure the cuttings are well-rooted in the containers before moving them outside. After a few weeks, you should see buds form, but the new roots will take longer to establish themselves in the soil. Early to mid-summer is the greatest time to replant grapevines, giving the cuttings plenty of time to grow and thrive in the comfort of their pots.
Cuttings obtained from dormant or hardwood trees have an 80% success rate, which is why I like to start with numerous cuttings. That way, even if some don’t survive, I’ll still have plenty of cuttings to plant outside when the time comes. Because you want a deep pot, recycled plastic water bottles work great; simply cut a few drainage holes in the bottom. Milk containers, wrapped in waxed paper or plastic, also work well.
2. Greenwood Cuttings to Grow Grapes
And Greenwood cutting propagation is a more difficult task, but it is still possible if you have expertise propagating other actively growing perennials. Unlike growing hardwood cuttings, which is very simple, there are additional considerations to consider, and the cuttings themselves are prone to drying out before taking root.
Why propagate with greenwood cuttings?
Certain species of grapes do not have a high success rate when grown from hardwood cuttings, according to grapevine enthusiasts. These varieties include muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) and pigeon grapes (Vitis aestivalis), which have just a 1 to 2% likelihood of success when propagated from hardwood (compared to a 70% chance of success when produced from greenwood).
You might also want exponential grapevine growth because cuttings can be removed from established cuttings and so on. If you wish to propagate grapes from greenwood clippings, you should collect cuttings from late spring through late summer. Cut stems from the vine that are 6 to 10 inches long with pruning shears.
Greenwood cuttings are weaker and more prone to damage than hardwood cuttings, and they will need to stand upright once potted. Cut above the node, like with hardwood cuttings, and leave one or two healthy nodes on the surviving vine. Remove all but one of the leaves from the fresh cutting; this will help to reduce water loss to a minimal as the cutting grows. Dip the cutting in a rooting hormone before planting it in potting soil right away.
Put the potted cuttings somewhere warm and moist (again, we keep ours in our attached greenhouse). It will take 1 to 2 weeks for the roots to grow and 3 to 7 weeks for the roots to grow long enough to replant the grape cuttings outside.
It is critical to maintain the greenwood cuttings moist and humid until they grow roots. Most people use a misting system to keep them consistently damp and prevent them from drying out, but this also increases the chance of fungal diseases.
Keep them in the shade until they’re established; this is another good way to keep greenwood cuttings from drying out before they have roots that can support plant growth.
Propagating Plants
Grapes aren’t the only fruiting perennials that can be grown from cuttings. You can also use the hardwood cutting method to propagate a variety of different plants, and many types have success rates ranging from 80 to 99%. We’ve grown sea buckthorn from cuttings with near-perfect success.
Similarly, growing elderberries from cuttings is a breeze. Growing blueberries from cuttings is more difficult, but success rates are still excellent. Blueberry plants are extremely expensive at nurseries, therefore the effort is worthwhile even if the success rate is slightly lower.
Also Read: How to Grow Strawberries in Pots?
