VINE CUTTINGS: FROM RICK JONES, FEB 3 1999In late fall or early winter, when the canes from the growing season that has just ended are fully matured and dormant, select cuttings that are reasonably straight, about 12" to 16" long. (Actually, now might still be OK, although it has been cold, but it might be worth a try.) The cuttings should be 1/4" to 1/3" diameter, with nodes that are approx. 4" to 5" apart. (Nodes closer than that indicate disease or poor growing conditions; too far apart indicates that the vine grew quickly, and may be low in the stored reserves that are necessary to carry the cutting through until spring.)
When you cut them, make the bottom cut straight across the vine, just below a node. Make the top cut at a 45 degree angle, about 1.5" above a node. This will protect the top bud, and, in the spring, you will be able to tell which way is up!
The best way to store them is in moist sand or sawdust, but they must be kept cold. (About 40 to 45 degrees; I learned from personal experience that they will sprout prematurely if allowed to get too warm.)
Plant in the early spring, with the top bud about 2 or 3 inches above ground level.
CUTTINGS TO VINES: FROM BERT DUNN, NOV 18 1999
"Notes From The North" suggest as follows. I have abbreviated as my typing is the Biblical System & added a snippet or two of my own
-cuttings should be collected in fall after they're dormant, before extreme cold weather
-cuttings 3 buds long, cut square across bottom, 1/2 " below bottom bud & 2" above top bud on a slant. Slant is always the top
-store same variety bundles- if they get mixed up in error-toss 'em out
-wrap bundles in wet paper/place in plastic bag & in "frost free" frig. If you have only modern friges, add a second plastic bag to ensure airtight
-in spring, if it ever comes, plant with top bud at soil surface. In case we have a dry spring, early summer, some wax top of cutting. Apparently wax toilet base rings have a lower melting point than many other waxes
-at this stage the magic ingredient is water, after a few weeks weed/weed/weed
CUTTINGS TO VINES: FROM PAUL VAN RIJN, NOV 18 1999
Hybrids can be own rooted with little risk while vinifera are at risk of death by phylloxera.
Here is my technique, which as worked moderately well for me. Comments and criticisms are welcome, as I never get 100% take.
In the fall prepare a bed (12-18 inches deep, 12 inches wide) of deep well drained, loose soil in a place that is close to some irrigation.
Harvest the wood when it is dormant (Dec to March) and keep it in damp (but not wet) sand or sawdust in a cool (less than 5 deg. C) dark place. I buried a pile of cuttings in the veggie garden one year and let the snow pile up on it.
The wood should be first year shoots, ripe (nice and brown, not green or speckled), disease free, about as thick as a pencil, around 6 to 12 inches long with three or so buds; leave about 1 to 2 inches of stem above the top bud. Direction matters! The usual custom is to cut a 45 degree angle at the top and square the bottom. Store them upright if possible. Use a sharp knife or very sharp bypass cutters so that the cuts are {clean}
When the soil has warmed and dried a bit in April or May, use a sharp knife to trim all buds off of the cuttings except the top one; this will be your vine.
Dig a trench in the prepared bed, with one vertical side. Put the cuttings at least six inches apart against the side of the trench; ensure that the bud is at ground level and fill the trench in. Pile a little soil over the top of the vines so that they do not dry out.
Keep the soil damp, not wet all summer. They should grow like gangbusters. Bury them completely in the fall; dig them out the following spring and plant them immediately, taking care to not let the roots dry out.
There are techniques for root pruning, growing in pots, using rooting hormone and so on. Others can elaborate.
SHIPPING CUTTINGS: FROM BERT DUNN, NOV 18 1999
...snip...this method will keep the cuttings in good shape. Will cost around 3.00 plus/minus. Wrap cuttings in damp paper towel, not sopping wet - put in plastic bag which can be sealed (eg ziplock, or another regular plastic bag that can be twist tied shut - put in brown envelope and into snail mail.
PRESERVING CUTTINGS: FROM GEOFF HEINRICKS, NOV 22 1999
What I do is, if I have a bunch of cuttings (different varieties or clones) to go in one bag, I make sure they're well tied into a bundle, and well labelled to survive moisture and mold. I use a green garbage bag, heavy gauge to help prevent pokes. I put in some DAMP but not soaked wood shavings (soaked in a weak wettable sulphur solution) on the bottom - all
over. Then put in bundles, occasionally sprinkling in handfuls of the damp shavings top, bottom, and atop the canes. When finished, squeeze out the air, rolling the bag kind of like a sleeping bag, and then taping securely with clear carton tape (or the brown - whatever's on the dispenser). If I'm worried about sticks poking through, I'll double bag, or do the roll thing again. Usually, because I have a number of different bundles, I'll put them in some kind of organization, in another bag, tied tightly. But that's for extra insurance, as I store in an apple cold storage, and want to make sure none of the the ethelynes from the stored apples kill the buds.
The important thing is to keep the canes in a damp, but not SOPPING environment, so they won't dehydrate. You'll probably find a white fuzz growing on the canes in the spring, but wash it off (and you'll be soaking the canes in a tub overnight or a day or two to revive them): it's harmless.
Lay the bundles flat, with neither end elevated above the other. Cover, or store in a cool place (say unheated dark northeast corner of a shed, garage or outbuilding).
STORING CUTTINGS IN A FRIDGE: FROM GEOFF HEINRICKS, NOV 22 1999
I'd be nervous about storing stuff in the fridge - even well sealed -
though I have myself from time to time. Very dry environment, and, well, the gases. Unless you're willing to risk disappointment. A beer fridge, without organics in it would be fine - just make sure there is damp shavings or chips in there to moderate the temp and humidity level.
Cuttings can be started in April indoors, after reviving them in water (see other post). I use old milkbags, with the bottom corners folded together in the middle to make a flat bottom...well pierced for drainage...and filled with a mix of mainly pearlite, with a bit of sterilized soil for colour [say about 4/5 pearlite, to 1/5 soil, mixed up by hand in a garbage can (new). Cuttings with 1, 2, or 3 eyes are put into the bag, watered with a water and some 10-52-10 fertilizer, and keep spritzed or watered so they don't dry out. Harden off in May, provided there is good growth, starting in shade before you put out in the field say after mid-May to late May. Hell, even early June.
This method, using healthy wood, usually gives a nice healthy shoot and good root system. The bag is cut off with a razor blade, some of the pearlite mixture is knocked off, and the root is set in a hole, filled, watered in, and tamped well but not in a godzilla frenzy. At least in the County, this helps get the new vine rooted into the limestone quickly, right off the bat.
STORING CUTTINGS IN A FRIDGE: FROM BERT DUNN, NOV 22 1999
Hi Tom & Debra: May I give a another opinion. I've been storing cuttings in my old frig for 20 yrs plus-no problems-so far. My e-mail of 18.11.99 erred as I should have said "NON frost free frig". Sorry about that. Many of us old timers still have a NON frost free frig". I continued on saying "if you have only a modern frig, add a second plastic bag".
Burying cuttings perhaps should also stipulate "below frost line". Here that means at least 3 feet--I'm very lazy and thats too far for me to dig . A real cool cellar etc is dandy, however in many newer houses the cellar is heated to 70'F Itry to start indoors around 1st of March. For me the best containers are 1 or two {litre} plastic tubs which formerly contained ice cream/yogurt etc. Very easy to get out to up pot or plant outdoors. 2 litre milk cartons are also dandy except they get destroyed when you remove the rooted/leafed out cutting.
ROOTING CUTTINGS: FROM BERT DUNN, FEBRUARY 11 2000
The following are my personal methods- most of which I borrowed from others-. I am sure Growwine members will have other methods. Cuttings do best with bottom heat, heat can be grow mats, heating cables, or such as piped hot water/steam at bottom of beds- all so the bottom of your cuttings are in about 70'F - 77'F medium. For medium I use 1/2 perlite & half peat. One can substitute vermiculite or sharp, coarse, clean sand. Lon Rombough advises perlite over vermiculite, as I remember due to better drainage of perlite. Medium about 3" deep. The air in my growing box area is about 14'C. The growing area needs to be kept misted. Give cuttings a couple of little nicks on lower 3/4", then dip in rooting hormone or gel. I use Wilson's Gel, about $5.50 container gives you enough to do about 150 cuttings. Can Tire Stores in Sask sell it for $4.59.
If you use gel, keep it room temp else it doesn't go as far. One customer suggested keeping it in warm water - sounds decent idea. Before inserting cuttings in soil create a hole with a fat pencil or similar so gel does not rub off cuttings being inserted into medium.
Place cuttings close togeather (Mark Hart places 80-100 in a standard tray)-must confess I only start 36 to 40. This gives me about 180 to 200 in my growing box which is 14" x 72". As my box is metal, it is sitting on a piece of blue styrofoam, cutoffs of which are fed/green taped to sides to keep heat in. Some of my cuttings have budded out and were uppotted in 18 days. All will have to be uppotted due to crowding.
If you have lots of room John in toy greenhouse with bottom heat you'll place them further apart, then maybe transplant to wood flats. Large greenhouses are often very humid- if you don't have that luxury, consider tenting with plastic - the lighter weight the better. If you are using small areas like I do, consider large cleaning plastic bags. If no high humidity, misting several time daily should be acceptable. Don't have your cuttings swimming. I water with about 70'F temp water. I feel if you put cold water on cuttings, you'll chill bottom of cutting area & set plant back.
I give all varieties the same treatment- be glad to hear if others have a variety of treatments for various vines.
ROOTING CUTTINGS: FROM MARK HART, FEBRUARY 11, 2000
I think Bert did an excellent job of describing a good procedure, and it is very close to what I do.
I'll mention a few other ideas as well. All this assumes you are doing indoors rooting, not in situ rooting.
As Bert mentioned, I use the standard 1020 nursery tray for rooting with a 50:50 perlite:peat mix. I usually use a peatlite potting mix (Sunshine #1) for the peat portion for a few reasons. It has the wetting agent and pH adjustment done which helps. Otherwise you should adjust the pH to above 5.5 with lime and add 1 or 2 drops of dish detergent to the first waterings to facilitate wetting of raw peat (breaks surface tension). No fertilizer is necessary until they are establihed in the pots or ground.
Yes, I usually stick 80-100 sticks in a tray which is generally 10 - 12 rows of 8 across. That is very tight, and makes extraction a little more difficult. The only reason I do that is because my heating surface space is limited. Even so, I usually do two rounds per spring. Actually, I got a lot of other hort stuff on the bench, it is not all grapes. So I am just maximizing space. If you let the cuttings get huge root systems before potting out, then it will be a real tangle.
If you live in a cold spot that sometimes has barren winters, there is an advantage to having the root crown rather deep so it does not get damaged in a very cold period. The method Bert and I describe with the 3 inch deep trays only roots the bottom node. If you have a three node cutting and both the top two buds break, remove the lower shoot, and then plant it deeper covering both lower nodes. Eventually you will get rooting from the middle node. If only the middle node breaks bud, you are left with a little shallower root system.
An alternative that others use is to root both the bottom two nodes. This is done in 8-10 inches of media, usually with 1 cutting in some sort of narrow deep pot (PVC tubes will work). The pots or tubes are put in a larger box and the heating elements are usually run among the tubes. The equipment is more elaborate, and more space and media are used, but you can get a deeper root system. Unless you go to a four bud cutting, you only have one bud to get to break, so there will be a little lower success with bud break. Whenever you root 2 nodes, 80-90 percent of the roots originate from the bottom node anyway.
The greatest detriment to success are dehydration of the cuttings during storage or rooting. Slightly moist or humid, not wet or dry is the rule.
I don't recall any rooting difficulty with any of the varieties you mention, treat them all the same. I use a very dilute liquid hormone (Dip and Grow) on my cuttings, but on these varieties it is not going to make a great difference. Just don't over hormone them; too much is much worse than none at all.
ROOTING CUTTINGS: FROM LON ROMBOUGH, FEBRUARY 11, 2000
I'll stick my nose in here and say that if you can keep temperatures at 80 to 85 F in the rooting zone, you can often get rooting in a week. I also prefer Dip 'N' Gro as it penetrates the cutting and eliminates the problems of having the rooting substance rubbed off when you put the cuttings into
the rooting media. For ease of handling, you can plant the cuttings one to a pot in square plastic pots 2 x 2 x 6 inches deep with open bottoms. Put them in an open mesh type flat (I think it's 50 to a flat) and put the whole thing on a heat mat. It takes more room, but the advantage is that you don't have to handle the cuttings as much - they root right in the pots they are to grow in. Start them in mid Feb this way and you can have 3 foot vines ready to set out by May.
A SOURCE OF HEAT FOR CUTTINGS: FROM PAUL VAN RIJN, MARCH 2, 2000
...snip...All of these went into one litre milk cartons (hoarded all winter) that fit nicely into one of those plastic crates. The soil is a peat/pearlite/compost mixture with a dash of lime to moderate the acidity of the peat. For bottom heat I used an old "medical" heating pad that has helped more than one malolactic fermentation on its way. The whole is wrapped in plastic and a blanket and monitored closely for temperature and moisture...snip...
CUTTINGS: FROM BERT DUNN, March 9, 2000
...snip...
First of all cuttings should be stored in a NON frost-free frig or a very cool (but not freezing ) area of home or garage--or at a friend's place.
Package should be tightly closed with plastic - if in doubt, put a second layer around it (especially if you store in a frost-free frig). About once a month look at package to be sure there is still moisture inside (not soaking wet, please). If in doubt open up, if paper etc is not damp, add a few tablespoons of water, reseal & back into cold.
For long time storage I like to add a little fungicide (not insecticide unless a combination of the two). As you remove these cuttings (with the fungicide on) we recommend you rinse them fully, plus wash your hands. Some start some of their cuttings early-I do.
I place cuttings in a 1 litre yogurt/sour cream plastic tub or 1 or 2 litre milk cartons, drill or punch a few drain holes in bottom, fill with perlite or vermiculite and peat, put in dark room (I use our furnace room which has no window) and water well to start. Thereafter water moderately-no fertilizer at this stage.
When leaves appear, I move to a lighted window-not to start into bright sunlight. Water with fertilizer therein at about 25% strength . Harden off just at planting time as with say tomatoes. Do not plant outside too early just because your other grapes are starting to leaf out- tomatoe planting time is about right.
If you leave in frig/cold place 'til planting time then you can plant either in "garden bed" or in their permanent place. In either case dig the soil deep enough so the cutting can be put in with just the top bud showing, (top bud of my cutting is cut on a slant, bottom almost always flat). From now on in the three types of planting the magic ingredient is water.
If we have a very hot dry summer as we did last year, each plant needs a bit of shade. A fruit crate over top, cut an old snow fence into 18" square & stake it, make a pilot hole in ground & shove evergreen branch into, etc, etc. Come winter if you have major rabbit problems you could paint plants with "Scoot" which apparently tastes terrible.
ALTERNATIVE TO POTS: FROM MARK HART, March 9, 2000
One alternative I have used instead of narrow pots, is the 2 or 3 inch diameter PVC pipe. The lighter-walled stuff, not schedule 40. You just cut it to length and put some fiberglass window screen or hardware cloth down in the bottom to keep the medium in. These are then put in a milk crate or some other tall container (I made one with treated wood and a hardware cloth bottom) to keep them upright and warm during rooting. PVC pipe is more work than a pre-made pot, and doesn't have the taper and root channels that a pot does, but it works. Everytime you repot a vine it goes through a stagnation period, so there is an advantage to this procedure. I sometimes use it for rooting benchgrafts.
WATER FOR CUTTINGS: FROM BERT DUNN, March 9, 2000
...snip... a few more words on
watering. If you are on municipal water, suggest you leave water in open receptacle for 24 + hours to dissipate the chlorine as well as bringing water to room temp. If you have a water softener, try to use water that bypasses softener. If you are on a well consider using rain water/melting snow water (do not use snow from or near your driveway-might have road salt in it). I fill 5 gallon pails in very late fall from our downspouts & keep in garage. If we have a thaw, out go the pails to refill. Warming to room temp applies to rainwater.
DISINFECTING CUTTINGS: FROM MARK HART, MARCH 25, 2000
I generally use Chinosol as a cutting disinfectant. This is a chemical that is used in the medical profession as a topical antiseptic and tissue disinfectant. The use on plants was pioneered in Germany, where it is shown to provide excellent control against bacterial and fungal pests on stored cuttings. Generally, rooting and graft take is higher with Chinosol treated material.
It is usually done as a dip solution, the material is kept totally submerged in the Chinosol solution for a period of time. Rates and times vary. I've used 1 teaspoon/gal for a 24 hour dip, and I've seen 2 teaspoon/Gal (0.25 percent) for 8 hours used. Don't go above 0.25 percent, it can inhibit budbreak and subsequent growth.
I usually treat the cuttings before they are put into storage, and that gives protection all the way through. You could treat anytime before grafting. I should note, a 8-24 hour soak is good for cutting hydration as well.
MOVING ROOTED CUTTINGS INTO SUNLIGHT: FROM BERT DUNN, MAY 19, 2000
Hello Michael-Yes, give 'em light when they've rooted- now you want the buds to break. BUT- not direct sunlight immediately. Start with shaded light, then after a couple of days to sunlit windowsill. When taking outside, put in dappled shade for a few days (watch tonight for frost) before planting in permanant spot. Cheers, your long lost cousin Bert Dunn
Alain Breault has Quebec-hardy vines.
Lon Rombough, Horticultural Consultant, Oregon
Peter Salonius in New Brunswick has cold-climate cuttings
Minnesota Grape Growers Association
The Viticultural Roundtable of Southwestern Ontario.
Zone 4 Hardy Grapes, Bert Dunn, Tottenham, Ontario
GROWWINE MEMBERS WHO CAN
HELP SOURCE CUTTINGS/VINES:
....... or see Bert's List of Hardy Grapes
www.littlefatwino.com