Last winter, my friend Frank cut some pieces off his grapevines and gave them to me. I stuck them in the ground and they grew into new grapevines. Could it be that easy?
‘Blueberry’ grape rooted last year, pruned back and flushing out again this year
This winter, I cut some pieces off those new grapevines and stuck them in the ground. They’re now pushing out small green leaves. It is that easy.
You read of people incorporating complex and expensive techniques and materials to propagate grapes, as well as other plants. They grow them in pots filled with certain percentages of perlite, they buy hormones that are said to induce rooting, etc. But I did little other than just stuck them in the dirt. And I had about 90% success.
The vines that Frank cut as well as the new vines that I just cut were bare and dormant. This was done in mid-January.
The cuttings were all 10-16 inches long, and each had a minimum of four buds. They were as thick as a pencil up to the thickness of a man’s thumb. Almost all of the cuttings I stuck in the ground last year rooted out, but the two that didn’t were only pencil thickness.
My process was to take a shovel and make a vertical slit in the dirt about eight inches deep and then stick the cutting, which just looks like a brown stick, into the slit. I sunk each one so that only two or three buds were above ground, and therefore at least two buds were below ground. (I transplanted last year’s cuttings at the same time I was sticking in this year’s cuttings, and I noticed that they had all rooted out precisely from the points where the buds were underground, most prolifically from the deepest bud.)
I poured some water into the slits and then pressed the soil closed around each stick. From that point on I aimed to keep the soil around the sticks moist, merely moist — not dry and not soggy. I poked around every week or so and added water if necessary. Last year’s cuttings were surrounded by tomato plants by the spring, so I just let them be watered on the same soaker hose with the same schedule that watered the tomatoes.
The ground where I put the cuttings last year was in full sun and this year I put some in partial shade. It hasn’t seemed to make a difference.
Incidentally, Frank gave me some cuttings off branches of a couple of his pomegranate and fig trees last year too, and I stuck them in the ground right beside the grape cuttings and they all rooted out just the same. Thanks, Frank.
Hey,Greg, can you use grape cuttings from grapes bought at the grocery store, in other words, from grapes already harvested? Thanks.
Hi Shalom,
Probably not because you need pieces of the vine to root, and those are normally not around at the grocery store.
Hi Greg,
Any thoughts on grape varieties that would be good for us to grow? My kids love grapes but I’m not sure what some good varieties may be for SoCal backyard gardeners :-). Thanks!
Hi MB,
Good question. Out of the grapes I have, my kids and I most enjoy Flame (purple) and Princess (green).
Interesting. How long do they take to root out using this method?
I do the fussy approach– soak them in honey water, scrape them to expose the cambium, dip them in rooting hormone, plant in a coir perlite mixture, and put them on a heat mat. I do get almost 100% success in 3-4 weeks (which means I only have to remember to water them about 5 times, because I cover the top in sand or cling wrap), but I always wish I had something more accessible to recommend to beginners who don’t want to buy all that stuff.
Hi Jessica,
I’m too cheap and distracted to do the fussy approaches. If I can’t do it with my native dirt or homemade compost, it ain’t getting done! I’m using a heat mat to speed up the germination of some mango seeds right now, and this is about as fussy as I ever get.
In late winter or early spring, the grape cuttings leaf out at the top and I assume that they root out at the bottom at a similar time because if I dig them up at this time they have grown some roots, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe the roots grow a bit before or after the leaves.
This year, I rooted a handful of grape cuttings by sticking them in containers filled with homemade compost because I plan to give them away. I also stuck a handful in the dirt. Both methods worked fine.
I did the same thing with cuttings from an apricot and plum tree. I had just planted the bare-root fruit trees and was trimming the branches per the instructions on the bag. On a lark I decided to dip them in rooting hormone and shoved the twigs into the ground at the base of the newly planted trees. Into plain dirt, no amendments. Mulched around them and they got watered along with the trees.The success rate was low, each tree had only one twig survive and grow. But now I have some cutting grown trees, I was so happy!