Planting grape cuttings

In order to be able to treat yourself to grapes from your site 3 years after planting, you need to choose a plant variety suitable for the region and conditions, find a good cutting, grow a seedling (or even a whole bush) from it and simply create all the conditions for normal development.

Planting grape cuttings

Terms and place

Grapes love light and warmth, and therefore the site must be suitable for these requirements. It is recommended to place grape bushes on the south, west or southwest side of houses or other buildings. During the day, they will heat up from the sun, and at night they will give the plants this heat, which affects the ripeness of the berries and the quality of the crop. Even in the northern regions, some varieties can be successfully grown based on this rule.

Planting grape cuttings

The slopes of the south, southwest and west are the best place for growing grapes. The lower part of the slope should be avoided, because the effect of frost will increase there. Also, do not plant grapes closer than 3-6 m from the trees (you need to rely on the approximate root system of the tree). If the soil needs to be fed, enriched, this is done well in advance before planting, because the soil is not immediately saturated with nutrients.

And, of course, you don’t just need to guess with varieties: they are selected according to the region, and according to climatic conditions, and under the request for specific taste qualities of the plant.

Planting grape cuttings

Deadlines

And in spring and autumn, this can be done quite successfully. From mid-April, for a month, annual seedlings can be planted, which are already lignified, and from the end of May, green vegetative ones are planted. But if it is decided to do autumn planting, it is planned from the beginning of October until the moment the soil freezes. In principle, the landing algorithms themselves are similar, with the exception of some significant nuances.

Planting grape cuttings

After the autumn planting, even if it happened in September or the end of August (northern regions), the tree will need to be much more carefully protected from frost. The risk of freezing of a young, not yet adapted plant is very high. First, it will be a plastic bottle cut as needed with three pre-drilled holes. And the ground around the landing site must be spilled with three or even four buckets of water. Then they loosen well.

Before frost, the bushes will need to be covered with needles, peat or sawdust, filling the planting hole with them. Yes, and ordinary soil, in the end, is also good. The hole is filled up, and then a mound is made up to a third of a meter high.

Planting grape cuttings

Nevertheless, spring and early summer landings are considered more successful and less risky. Before April 15, grapes are not planted, but in summer the process can drag on until mid-June. True, the place will have to be prepared in the fall.

By the way, if the future shrub needs to be protected from the wind, you can focus on a hedge – these can be trees with a tap root system, for example, pine or poplar.

Planting grape cuttings

Well, the quality of the soil is also being improved since autumn.

  1. This can be achieved by sowing winter rye. In the spring, it is left between the rows, and in the rows themselves, before vine planting, they are mowed.
  2. Such crops will not allow the shoots of young grapes to break off under the influence of strong winds, they will not allow sandy soils to scatter, and the humus layer to be washed off.
  3. But when the shoots get stronger, the rye can be mowed, it will become a mulch.

Conditions, place, timing – this is important, but it is even more important to properly prepare a plant planted by cuttings for planting.

Planting grape cuttings

Prepare

Cuttings are lignified fragments of a vine (well-ripened), and they are harvested in the fall, when the grapes are pruned. Then the cuttings are stored for storage for the whole winter, usually this happens in the basement or cellar, in the sand, but it can also be in polyethylene, in the refrigerator. In order for the cuttings to root more successfully, they need to be prepared for this procedure.

Planting grape cuttings

Consider the features of the process.

  • Cuttings from successfully overwintered vines are cut with secateurs just before planting. Their length varies from 10 cm to 40 cm.
  • Even before planting, each cutting must be checked to see if the eyes are still on it, whether the state of the cutting is fresh. And the freshness is checked as follows: by pressing on the stalk with a knife, you need to see if there are droplets of moisture on the cut. If the cortical strip is carefully removed with a knife, you can find green tissue under it – this is a good sign. But a yellow or brown open core speaks of a dead plant, it can no longer be reanimated.
  • Washed fresh, good specimens need to be dried. Suitable for this soft rags or plain paper. Then you can cut.
  • If you make a cut across the eye, there should be no darkening, blackening of the central kidney too.

Planting grape cuttings

Planting grape cuttings

And this is important, because only healthy cuttings must be prepared for planting.

And in order for them to take root better, it is necessary to update the sections before planting. Disinfection will also be required: the cuttings must be held in a solution of copper or iron sulfate (100 g per 10 l of water – copper, 300 g per 10 l – iron). You can also hold them in potassium permanganate, diluting 2 g in the same 10 liters of water.

Also, if the cuttings are dried, they must be soaked before rooting. By the way, this is an important and obligatory stage. The fact is that winter storage, which is quite long, takes moisture from the cuttings, and the lost must be replenished. Usually it takes 2-3 days, sometimes it takes 5 days (it all depends on the condition of the cuttings). Soaking is either complete immersion in water, or lowering only the lower tip. And the water in the process of soaking once a day must be changed.

Planting grape cuttings

What else can accelerate rooting is the furrowing and blinding of the eyes. Furrowing is the application of longitudinal wounds on one or two internodes (namely, the lower ones), which contributes to the flow of nutrients to the injured areas. It also activates cellular activity. The cutting should be stretched with the lower tip along the teeth of the hacksaw, from both sides. The wounds should not be very deep, otherwise the wood of the handle will be affected. You can also make a couple of scratches with the tip of a knife or pruner, this is also furrowing, only more laborious.

Planting grape cuttings

But blinding consists in removing the lower eye of the cutting, which optimizes root formation. But the operation is still risky: the upper buds may simply not open (if it takes place in an apartment, dry air can interfere with preparing the cuttings correctly).

And, of course, it is worth focusing on the use of root formation stimulants. These are special solutions, “Epin”, “Heteroauxin”, “Novosil”, “Humisol”. Specific instructions are always on the package, the proportions must be strictly adhered to. If the stimulant is in powder form (“Kornevin”, for example), then it is better to use it in solution.

Planting grape cuttings

Planting grape cuttings

If you want not to use “chemistry”, natural honey is taken as a natural stimulant. Although it doesn’t always work.

rooting

There are two common ways, roughly equal. One is more difficult, but more effective, the other is much simpler, but does not always work.

In the substrate

The lower cut is made straight, under the knot, and the upper cut is 4 cm above the knot. Next, the furrowing described above is carried out, which stimulates the flow of hormones to the injured areas, and this is very good for root formation. Well, growth stimulants will also be appropriate.

Ordinary plastic bottles are suitable as containers for rooting. The containers, together with the cuttings, are placed on a pallet, preferably closer to the light. And you need to remember about maintaining a constant humidity of the substrate. But the substrate itself will be coarse and clean coniferous sawdust, river sand, coconut flakes, fine gravel or even sphagnum moss will also work. And ordinary cotton wool is also used. But small sawdust (directly from under the saw) is not the best choice, they quickly turn sour.

Planting grape cuttings

As soon as rooting has taken place, the cuttings are very delicately shaken out, sent to other containers or a ground cuttings. The new substrate should contain a lot of river sand. Before planting already rooted samples, the substrate is shed with a manganese solution.

And there is also a horizontal rooting method in the substrate: the bottom of the shank (this is also called the cuttings) is sent to the moss, for example, then to the bag and the closet.

You can also use natural fabric. But it may be difficult to maintain normal humidity, the rag may dry out or even fade.

Planting grape cuttings

In water

Here it is – a technique that is definitely simpler, but not always effective. Water is better to take rain or melt. But you can also from the tap, but it’s still defended. It is necessary to cut and prepare the cuttings as usual, but the lower cut is made 3 cm below the knot, and then the cuttings are placed in a container with water so that the lower knot is on the same water-air border. The container is sent to the light.

It is important that the water temperature does not exceed 26 degrees. Otherwise, the roots simply do not form, and the cutting will die.

Planting grape cuttings

The water in the jar will turn sour, this is inevitable, because about once a week it needs to be replaced with fresh water. And keep the same recommended temperature. Also, a couple of pieces of charcoal are often placed in the water, which keeps the water from souring quite well. The cuttings are not kept in water for a long time: as soon as the roots grow a centimeter or two, they are quickly sent to a container with soil. And watering, care will be normal.

Planting grape cuttings

Disembarkation

There are three options for the soil in which grapes will eventually grow: black soil and clay (the rules are the same for them) and sands.

On chernozem and clay

It is necessary to dig a hole 80x80x80 cm. At the bottom of the formed hole, a nutrient layer is made with a thickness of a quarter of a meter. From 7 to 10 buckets of humus are taken, as well as fertile soil (reaching the desired level). The mixture is well compacted, sprinkled with mineral fertilizers on top. As a mineral fertilizer, this option would be good: 300 g of superphosphate, 300 potassium supplements, 3 liters of wood ash. Then all this is mixed with the ground and sent to a depth of 5-10 cm, and again there is a new layer compaction. The next will be a layer of fertile soil of 5 cm, without top dressing. And you get a hole half a meter deep.

Planting grape cuttings

Step-by-step instructions will guide you through the next steps.

  1. A mound is made in the center of the pit, into which the rooted plant is installed, the roots are straightened evenly along the contour.
  2. Then it is covered with a fertile layer without fertilizers, which must be done before growth.
  3. Seedlings obtained from rooted cuttings are placed vertically, but if the length of the seedling is 25 cm+, then they are placed obliquely. After landing, the hole will become 25 cm deep.
  4. After planting, the soil is slightly compacted, and then watered with about 2-3 buckets per bush (this depends on soil moisture).
  5. After the top layer has dried, the earth is loosened 5-10 cm deep. Then you need to water a couple more times in 2 weeks. The bush will have an average of 2,5 buckets. After the next watering, the soil is loosened, and then mulched. Further, the pit will have to be loosened after each watering or rain.

Planting grape cuttings

It seems to be nothing complicated to properly plant a seedling in black soil or clay. But with sand, everything will be a little different.

On the sands

Sandy soil, unlike chernozem, freezes more strongly in winter, but in summer it warms up more. It does not retain moisture and nutrients as well as fertile soil. In this regard, the landing pit will have different dimensions – 80x80x105 cm. And in order to retain moisture and nutrients, a kind of “castle” is made at the bottom of the pit from well-compacted clay, 20 centimeters in size. It is saucer-shaped in shape.

Then a layer of nutrient substrate 25 cm thick is sent to this place (everything, as with black soil). Top dressing involves potash fertilizers, better – potassium magnesia. The planting depth of a seedling on sandy soil is approximately 60 cm, and the depth of the pit after planting is at least 30 cm. Watering is carried out three times, 3-4 buckets of water per pit, in a week and a half.

Planting grape cuttings

Other important expert tips and solutions will come in handy.

  • There are several ways of planting – for example, in trenches with transshipment of the upper fertile layer. They even make non-standard boxes with walls that are reinforced with slate or boards, bricks.
  • But there is another option, more simplified, not involving trenches and trenches with a decent depth. It involves winter shelters (both temporary and permanent), convenient watering – and in the northern regions this is a good solution. In each new row, a groove with a flat bottom is dug (it should be equal to the depth of the fertile layer), and its width is 40 cm. When digging, the fertile top layer is placed on one side with a roller. In the underlying sand, landing holes are made 5 cm in diameter and up to 80 cm deep (the excavated sand is folded on the other side).
  • There is no need to organize drainage in the sand, but the same “castle” is necessary, because the bottom is filled with clay clods with broken bricks. This layer needs to be moistened and compacted. And on top you need to add compost, and even higher – a layer of fertile soil. A seedling is placed on it obliquely.
  • To properly water and feed the grapes, you need to dig plastic bottles next to the seedling. They should not have a bottom, and they are installed with the neck down.
  • If you need to install trellis supports, they are fixed from the side of the aisle, 10 cm from the edge of the base-groove, the walls of which would be nice to strengthen with slate (you can also use boards).
  • To create thermal accumulation around the seedlings, it is necessary to dig in the cobblestones. And if the trench is on the west-east line, glass bottles are placed upside down along the southern edge.
  • You can protect the seedling from frost by wrapping it in polyethylene, placing it inside earthen tunnels. From above, it is sprinkled with sawdust, covered with spruce branches. You can also cover it with a tarpaulin cloth, cover it with soil.

Planting grape cuttings

All standard safety methods are used in the technology of planting grapes by cuttings. For example, a cut is made only with a sterile pruner or garden shears. And about the disinfection of cuttings, too, must not be forgotten.

In general, this method of planting is not considered difficult and is suitable even for beginners who will store cuttings in the winter at home.

Planting grapes with cuttings in the video below.

Anna Evans

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