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In order to decorate your garden with green vines and get a good harvest of grapes, it is not enough to grow one plant. Of course, you can buy several grown seedlings for cultivating a crop, but they are by no means cheap, and problems may arise with the variety of plants. It is much cheaper and more reliable to propagate grapes on your own by cuttings. Further, in the proposed article, we will talk in detail about how to prepare cuttings in the fall, how to properly store and germinate them. This information will surely be useful for both beginners and experienced winegrowers.
Harvesting cuttings
To carry out the propagation of grapes by cuttings only, at first glance, is quite difficult. Under certain conditions, the roots of grapes begin to actively develop both on green and ripe pieces of the vine. Cuttings can be carried out in spring or autumn. Autumn cuttings are preferable, because with proper storage and rooting, by spring the cuttings (shanks) will be planted in a permanent place of growth. The probability that it will take root, in this case, is close to 100%. The planting material harvested in the fall is stronger and healthier. Such a vine is capable of rapidly growing root and greenery, and developing fruiting arrows.
Cuttings are harvested in the fall during the main grape pruning... This must be done no earlier than 2 weeks after the plant has thrown off the foliage and before the onset of severe frosts. The selection of planting material must be carried out especially qualitatively, focusing on the following criteria:
- It is preferable to choose shafts with a diameter of up to 6 mm. Thicker shoots are considered fattening and are not able to take root.
- Propagation of grapes by cuttings in the autumn season should be carried out only with the use of fruiting, ripe shoots.
- A good quality stalk must be firm. When bending it, you can hear a slight crackle.
- The bark of the vine should be a uniform light to dark brown color.
- On a cut of a healthy cutting, you can see a green color. Brown blotches indicate the development of a disease or freezing of the shoot.
- During visual inspection, attention should be paid to the absence of mechanical damage, signs of diseases and other defects on the surface of the bark.
Such general rules will make it possible to prepare only the highest quality planting material for the next year. Having chosen shoots suitable in all respects, you can start cutting cuttings. Their length should be at least 30 cm. 2-4 eyes should be left on each shank.
Storage of shanks in winter
Cutting grapes in autumn involves long-term winter storage of planting material under certain conditions with a temperature of no higher than +40C. Before storage, the shanks are cleaned of the remnants of leaves, mustaches and stepsons. Sections of the vine are twisted with a soft elastic band or rope into a bundle, if necessary, a tag is imposed with the indication of the variety.
Among the most affordable ways to store grape shanks are the following:
- Storing grape cuttings in a cellar or basement will not be difficult.Planting material just needs to be dug in a container with wet sand and left in a cool cellar until early February.
- Storage in the garden involves digging a trench 50 cm deep. Its length should correspond to the length of the grape cuttings. A layer of sand 10 cm thick is poured at the bottom of the trench. Ligaments of shanks are laid on the sand and sprinkled with the remaining soil, fallen leaves, sawdust, and straw. On top of such a bookmark, you need to lay a flap of polyethylene.
- The optimum temperature for storing planting material can be found in the refrigerator door. Before storage in the refrigerator, the grape shanks are soaked in cold water for 1-2 days, and then wrapped in a plastic bag. This method is good when grape cuttings are harvested in small quantities.
Of course, the most convenient way is to store the vine in the cellar, but in the absence of such a room, it is preferable to use a refrigerator. When laying the shanks for storage, you need to remember that in January they will have to be obtained for germination at home.
Rooting methods for grape cuttings
It is recommended to start rooting grape cuttings in late January - early February. At this time, the shanks are taken out of storage and treated with a solution of potassium permanganate. After processing, the cuttings should be soaked in water for 1-2 days. Immediately before rooting, the slices on the cuttings are refreshed. Two oblique cuts are made on each handle. In this case, it is important that the inner part of the cuttings on the cut has a green color, and at least 2 eyes remain on the cuttings itself. Scratches (grooves) are made in the lower part of the shank with a needle or a thin knife blade. This part of the vine is dipped in Kornevin. Further, you can choose one of the rooting methods:
Rooting in sawdust
To do this, pour slightly moistened sawdust into a small container and put bundles of cuttings in them. Place the container with planting material on a heating radiator or other heating device. Moisten the sawdust every 5 days. After 3 weeks, small roots will appear on the grape cuttings.
Rooting in the ground
For growing roots on grape cuttings, you can use a nutrient soil of low acidity. It should include light peat, sand, humus and fertile soil. Pour the nutrient medium into plastic pots or halved bottles. It is imperative to make drainage holes in the bottom of the container. When filling the pots, it is necessary to provide for a drainage layer of pebbles, expanded clay or broken brick. Cuttings in nutrient soil plant under a slight slope, leaving 1-2 buds above the soil surface.
Rooting in water
This method of rooting grape shanks is the least laborious. For its implementation, it is necessary to pour a little water into a glass jar and put the shafts inside the container. An example of such rooting is shown in the video:
This method is great for home growing grapes.
Proper rooting begins with building up the root system. Premature formation of greenery will indicate a violation of this process.
As soon as the root system begins to develop in the lower part of the shanks, and the length of the small roots has reached 1.5-2 cm, you can start planting grape shafts in separate containers. For cultivation, you can use all the same fertile soil. The containers must be selected with a diameter of at least 10 cm and a depth of 20-25 cm. It is imperative to pour a drainage layer on the bottom of the containers.
A week after planting the shanks in separate containers, they should be fed with potassium or wood ash. It is necessary to introduce a trace element at the rate of 30 g per plant.It is worth noting that nitrogen-containing fertilizers are not used for grape cuttings at an early stage of cultivation.
Planting seedlings in the ground
Home-rooted cuttings are planted in open ground in early May. By this time, leaves and small roots should appear on the stems of the grapes. The planting process can be described in the following stages:
- Initially, you need to choose a sunlit area with well-drained soil.
- Dig a plot of land deeply with the addition of humus, nitroammofoska and coarse sand.
- Form a groove to the required depth.
- Place the seedlings in the groove at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other.
- Close up grape seedlings to such a depth that the upper peephole is at a height of 7-10 cm from ground level.
- Sprinkle the lower part of the seedlings with fertile soil, which must subsequently be compacted.
- After planting, water each seedling abundantly, mulch the soil.
When all these rules of storage, rooting and planting are fulfilled, it is very easy to propagate grapes by cuttings. By the next fall, you can get healthy seedlings with a sufficiently developed root system. After overwintering in the open field, with the arrival of heat, the grapes will begin to grow actively.
Can grape cuttings be planted in the fall directly into the ground
The above method for propagating grapes by cuttings in the fall is quite laborious and painstaking. It is necessary to prepare cuttings, take care of their safety in winter and carefully root them at home closer to spring. A set of such measures allows you to get a lot of healthy and strong seedlings at the output. But grapes also multiply in a simpler way, which involves planting the shanks immediately after harvesting into the ground. This method of growing is quite simple and is similar to propagation of grapes through layering. To implement this method, you must:
- Prepare healthy cuttings, make oblique cuts at the ends of the vine.
- In a prepared hole, 50-60 cm deep, place the cutting at an angle of 450.
- One peephole should be left above the ground.
- Dig up the stems of grapes with fertile soil, compact it and water it.
- Before frost, the shanks should be watered regularly.
- For the winter, cover the grape cuttings with foliage, straw, burlap.
- With the arrival of spring warmth, the shelter should be removed and the appearance of green leaves of young grapes should be expected.
This method, of course, is much easier than propagating grapes by cuttings with storage and rooting at home. The only significant drawback of this propagation method is the low survival rate of seedlings. So, of the total number of cuttings, only 60-70% wake up in the spring. Such a low viability of the shanks must be taken into account even during planting of plants in the ground: 2 grape cuttings should be planted in one hole at once. If both of them take root, then the weakest stalk will have to be removed.
Thus, the above information allows you to understand how to harvest grape cuttings in the fall, how to save the prepared harvesting and root them.
The video clip will also allow you to answer some of the remaining questions and see with your own eyes the whole process of grape propagation by cuttings.
This simple method makes it possible to breed a whole plantation from young seedlings from cut, ripe shoots of one shrub. Of course, this will require a certain amount of effort and time, but it will save money for the purchase of already grown seedlings.
