Hello and welcome to how to grow grapes from hardwood cuttings. Even though grapes are woody perennials vines, they are actually quite easy to propagate from cuttings. This is great because not only are grape plants obscenely expensive to buy at the store. Getting the variety you want isn’t always an option and you’re at the mercy of what’s currently in stock.
Now the best time of year to prune your grapevines is late winter. This is highly fortunate because the best time of year to take grapevine cuttings is also late winter, it’s not hard. Let me show you how.
This summer our grape plant will bear fruit on the shoots that sprout from the one-year-old canes. The new shoots will come from the buds, which occur every four to six inches on healthy one-year-old canes.
When taking cuttings from a grape plant to grow new grapes plants, these are the very same canes that we’re after. Consequently, you’re gonna want to do all your pruning first. Setting up your main plant for summer success.
Just from that pruning alone, we’ll have more than enough material to take all of our cuttings from.
Cutting Process
When taking our cuttings what we’re after are healthy canes with big buds forming at uniform intervals. Each cutting that we want to root should have about three or four buds on it. So a single large cane can obviously provide more than one cutting.
I haven’t found any difference in rooting success, taking cuttings from the base of the plant versus the top of the plant. So don’t stress about that. Use the entire cane as long as those buds look healthy.
Once you’ve gone ahead and pruned your grapevine and selected your prospective canes to take the cuttings from we can start counting the buds and then get ready to cut.
I always cut the shoots on an angle at the bottom, flat at the top. This will let me know which end to put in the soil. Because if you put the vines upside down they will not root.
Cutting on an angle also gives the exposed stem more surface area to callous over and a subsequent better chance at rooting.
Make your grapevine cuttings roughly 12 to 18 inches long. This will give you anywhere from three to four buds per cutting.
Another way to distinguish the shoot’s orientation is to cut the stem right close to the top bud, leaving the bottom stem a good couple inches extra from the bottom bud which will also help in planting.
Once you have all your cuttings what I like to do first is place them in a container of about four to five inches of water. I do this for 24 to 48 hours to allow the stems to fully hydrate giving me a greater chance of rooting success.
While these stems are soaking let’s go ahead and prepare our pots.
Preparing pots to grow grapes from cuttings
Any pot that is six inches deep or deeper will do just fine. I use standard one-gallon nursery pots because I like to start two vines in each one, just in case one vine doesn’t take.
Fill those pots all the way to the top with a standard organic potting mix. Next, you’re gonna want to soak those pots in water from below for about a day. This is key because you really want the soil to be nice and moist to avoid those stems drying out.
Any sort of moisture challenges these cuttings face will result in them not rooting, trust me.
Now that our pots have been soaking for about a day and our cuttings for around one to two days we’re ready to plant.
Planting process
Planting is easy. I just pressed the stems in, angled cut down about three-quarters of the way into that pot. Not all the way to the bottom, at least an inch or two above, this part is important.
I’ve had many grapevine cuttings rotted me over the years and I really think it’s because I pushed that stem in way too far and the cut end was resting on the bottom.
Don’t let that happen to you, suspend those cuttings at least an inch or two above the bottom and you’ll be golden.
I should note at this point that many people will use rooting hormones, you know and for most woody cuttings I do agree they are a great tool. But in the case of grapevines, they root so damn easy, I don’t think it’s really necessary.
However, if you’re having trouble getting yours to root certainly a 0.1 percent Indole-butyric acid or IBA is gonna help. Simply dip the bottom ends of the cutting into that powder before planting and then push them in just as you did before easy stuff.
Temperature requirements to grow grapes from cuttings
Your newly planted grapevine cuttings are best kept at 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. So slightly above room temperature. I used a low-watt seeding heat pad for mine.
After about a week you should start to see the new bulbs begin to swell. Within two weeks some of those bulbs may even begin to sprout and after three weeks the leaves are really starting to grow.
Now if nothing’s happening with your stems after about a month to six weeks likely nothing’s going to. Pull those stems out and try a different one.
Do note that even the cuttings with the biggest leaves probably still won’t be properly rooted at this point. That part takes some time. So don’t wiggle, move or pull out the stems for at least a couple of months.
Keep your new grape plants indoors until your grape plants outside begin to sprout. At that point you can bring the pots outside to continue growing or plant them up anywhere you want to establish a new set of vines.
Recap on how to grow grapes from cuttings:
Grapes are pruned when the shoots are dormant in the later stages of winter. Luckily these prune canes are the same canes that we need to grow new plants from. Cut those extra shoots to around 12 to 18 inches long containing three to four buds each.
Next cut those bottoms off at an angle and place them in potted soil four to six inches deep. Keep well watered and between 70 and 80 degrees, Fahrenheit and your grape cuttings will sprout within a few weeks and be ready for transfer out into the garden this spring.
Conclusion on how to grow grapes from cuttings:
Growing new grapes plants from cuttings is an easy and inexpensive way to increase your grape production from plants that you already own and if you have a variety that is performing well for you and you just can’t get enough of it or you can’t find more of them to buy at the store make sure to root some cuttings this winter while you’re out there pruning the plant anyway. Hey if you guys have any other grape growing tips that you’d like to share with the community make sure to leave them in the comments down below.
Hey, thanks for reading guys if you’re getting value in this then share it with your family and friends. Till then happy gardening!
