How to root grape cuttings – Instructions provided by Christine Frye

Don't prune until the wood is thawed. You want to prune after buds are forming but not let them burst open.

First off you have to determine if your vine is a graft itself or a "true" vine. Assuming you have a Concord. You first learn to prune it so you are getting approximately foot-long hard wood cuttings that have approximately 3 budding nodes. Look for those with a reddish cast to their papery bark with a green cambium layer. Use really sharp pruning shears and you want these to be about as big around as your pinky finger/pencils. Keep track of which end is "up" and which one is "down" or closer to the trunk of the vine by cutting just under the "down" node by a quarter inch, straight across. Count up the vine for about 3-4 budding nodes and cut just on top of the last node in the chosen section in a slanted cut, short end a quarter inch from the budding node. Now you always know that your slanted ends are "up" and the flat-straight cuts are "down". Make a bunch cause it's just the breaks that not all will take root.

Once you have your cuttings, immediately put them "down" end first into a bucket of lukewarm water. Willow water is even better. If possible, put them in the water as you cut them. You want them to soak up water. If they soak flat in a large enough bucket so that both ends are under water, even better. Let them soak for 12-24 hours. I usually let them sit in the water overnight and work on them the next day so about 24 hrs. Bring your water bucket inside if it's cold out at night.

After you soak them, with willow-water soaked clean white paper towels folded a couple of times, LOOSELY wrap the "down" ends and rubber band to keep their wrappings on. Place the wrapped cuttings in a dark black trash bag and close up the top. Put the bag in a warm spot for at least a week. Warm as in about 75-80 degrees.

Try hard not to peek at them as the new growth is extremely fragile. You want to see a callous forming on the end under the wrap. (Though to be honest, I've seen the callous form at the "up" end too. Either way, you want a callous.) A callous is a white spongy material that forms along the cut's cambium ring. Well developed callouses may even cover the center wood.vYou can google images to see some examples of a callous. I found that in real life, once I opened a wrap and saw this white thing, from then on I can recognize a grape callous. You MUST have a callous or the cuttings will not root. Period. So getting callous is important. Willow water is water that has been infused with wood chips/twigs/bark from a willow tree. Ever notice how easily a willow-anything will take root? They are packed with the chemicals that stimulate rooting. It's like an all-natural rooting compound.

Once you have good substantial callouses, you are ready to plant the cuttings. Sometimes you will even find itty-bitty white roots that honestly look like the white "roots" of a baby tooth that has been pulled. Sometimes the budding nodes towards the "up" end will open and you will have baby leaves. Don't worry at all about those leaves. They will likely die and don't matter in this process. You are all about roots now.

There are two ways to plant cuttings and probably more than that. You can plant them in pots but I will say that I prefer to stick them in the ground. If you choose pots, make sure you are using a light potting mix. You have to "warm" the roots but keep the tops cool. You don't want to encourage top leaf growth without roots or the strength of the cutting is going to leaf, no roots form, the whole stick eventually dies. So if you have a way to do those conditions, you can do it. I do not have the heated trays/mats for those roots conditions so have only had so-so success with this method. Not that it doesn't work; I just lack the equipment.

I plant the cutting sticks directly into the ground in early spring. Remember you are pruning after wood thaws and before the bud breaks so the outdoors mother vines are already indicating that conditions are right for grape growth. DO NOT PUSH the cuttings into the dirt. That totally damages the delicate callous (and baby roots if there are any). Also, if there are not any baby roots but you have a good callous, that is enough. Don't worry about whether there are roots yet. Dig a small hole. If you are planting these new cuttings directly where they will be permanently staying, plant them under your trellis 12 feet apart. An ideally pruned fully mature Concord will have cordons approximately 6 feet on each side of the trunk.

Dig this hole just a few inches wider than the cutting. Loosen the soil around the hole with a pitch fork. Loosen the soil that you will refill the hole until fluffy and fine. CAREFULLY hold the calloused cutting in the hole and begin sprinkling the dirt back around it. DO NOT PACK or tamp down the dirt. Those baby roots need loose soil. Just sprinkle sprinkle until the hole is filled. After watering you may need to sprinkle in some more so keep a pile of soil handy. Do not fortify with a bunch of fertilizer though some very well-rotted compost is fine. Grapes do much better without all the fertilizers and such, especially tough Missouri Concords.

Loosen with a pitch fork just means stick it in the ground here and there and rock it back and forth. It doesn't mean tear up the ground. Also, while it is fine to clear sod and weeds for a few inches around your new hole, don't clear-till the whole area. Existing plants/root systems communicate with the new cuttings and tell them how to grow. New roots will follow along the channels made by other root systems, the path of least resistance. So just mark them well and you can mow around them if you must but leave their training plants alone.

WARNING: This is a grand game of patience. Some may die and never root. But some will root but you will never know it for months. Literally all summer long and into the fall. In fact, I do not pull up "dead" cuttings until the next spring so I let a year pass. It takes a really long long time before you will see a sign that your cuttings are taking root and gonna make it. When you do, your heart will sing and I usually do a garden-joy dance in honor of their survival. So don't panic when summer passes and there are no leaves yet. Just keep waiting. But if winter arrives and some never got a single bud or leaf, probably they are dead... but I'd still wait. I have seen them do absolutely nothing and then the next spring, there they are, budding right along with the parent plants.

If you are planting the cuttings in a temporary spot and plan to dig them up once all that time has passed and you know they are alive and now are little baby grape plants, then you can plant them closer together with enough room for digging them up comfortably.

Water them once a week if the rain doesn't do it for you. Once they are established, grapes do great in full-on drought. The hotter and drier, the sweeter the fruit. But that first year when they are trying to make roots, water them once a week.