Can you root a Grape vine??

[milos]

Lesley Jay, thank you, thank you very much.
I live in Ontario, Canada.

[SueA]

Hi Milos & welcome. You don't sound like you're doing anything wrong with your grapevines as you've had grapes on them. You should just cut them back around now before the sap starts to rise in them, cut back the side shoots to a few buds before they meet the main stems. In the summer when they are growing fast just cut off any very long skinny bits which do not have any fruit growing on them as they are wasting the plant's energy & trim any fruiting stems back to a couple of leaves past where the fruit has formed so that all the energy goes into swelling those bunches of grapes.I would not spray your grapevines with anything, they don't tend to get many pests, the only problem you might have is mildew late on in the season but if you keep them well watered & well drained & prune them they should be O.K. If you have a lot of birds where you live though you might need to put some kind of netting over the whole vines when the fruit is ripening to stop the birds eating the grapes before you get the chance!

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Milos! That makes you our first member from Canada!!

[nick the grief]

Hi Milosm Welcome to the Vine - just for info My big sister is Canadian (long story ). Well done on the Grapevines.

Really you're not supposed to let them fruit in year one like Strawberries but hey who can turn them down

If you look at the start of this thread there is a link to growing grapes (it's a US document but I guess thats going to be nearer than anything we can supply here.

We look forward to seeing the photo's later on

I guess this means another 2 folders for weather LJ

[milos]

Thank you, Thank You all!

It is very cold at the moment, but as soon as the weather permits I will be starting pruning. I hope there will be some vines left after me and my scissors:-)

Thank you.

[Casa Oliva]

Hi all,
This looks like a good thread and maybe we can join in the international forum that seems to be going on?
we are new to Grapevine and looked it up after buying an olive farm in Spain. This has also come with 1000 vines which we just do not know where to begin with. Added to which the vines are grown low on the ground here. We have contemplated raising them and growing along raised fences as in France, however they are planted in rows in between our 500 olive trees and figs so this may be tricky as it will prevent the tractor getting around. We think they are red grapes although we have never seen the fruit as always previously visited the farm after harvest and have not yet seen a season in. Advice gratefully received and as as we are setting up a small rural hotel on the farm you can all visit the vines at some time or other. We are based in Trujillo Extremadura which is also wonderful birdwatching territory.
Thanks in hope.
Zoe & Rob

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hello Zoe and Rob and welcome to the Vine! I can't help with your grapevine query, but it sounds like you have a wonderful estate there - grapes, olives and figs - mmmmm!

[scarey55]

Hi LWaltNC, I may just have been lucky with my cuttings, but I didn't do anything special to get them to root. I just cut off some pieces about 6 to 8 inches long that were about as thick as a pencil & pushed them into small pots of compost, put them alongside the back wall of the house & left them.

Hi LWaltNC,

I did almost exactly the same as Sue and they grew very well. I cut them back in January (may not be the same time in your part of the world) as per instructions in a book that I happened to have, and thought it's a shame to throw the cuttings away. I just pushed them into the ground where the others were and they just rooted and started to grow - as simple as that! Trouble is that they were struck down with mould this year but I am expecting them to carry on next year without too much trouble.

One thing that I did read is that grapes thrive on neglect (the plant that is - not us)- just as well in my case.

Also, I would like to say to all our new International Grapes a very warm welcome to you all - I know you've found a good home here.

Clare

[Snadger]

I'll agree with how easy they are to root! I put five softwood cuttings into a five inch pot with a polythene bag over the top secured to the pot rim with an elastic band.
Hey presto! Five out of five well rooted cuttings. I gave one away which is thriving in a friends greenhouse, planted one in each of my two greenhouses which are thriving, planted two outside which died!
Very easy and I know that the vine the cuttings came from bears lots of fruit for another allotment holder so I have no reason to doubt it will not do the same for me next year!

[SueA]

Hi Zoe & Rob & welcome to the 'vine'. I've no idea about commercial grapevines but it sounds like a great project you have there, the only thing I do know is that you'll probably have to 'winter prune' the vines in the next few months. I'd say carry on growing them the same way they are now, it must have worked for the previous owners.Good luck with the farm & hotel.

[Casa Oliva]

Thanks guys,
well all the advice to LWaltNC above is also helpful at least if we damage the vines along the way.
We'll carry on as we are and keep you posted.
Thanks again
Z & R

[Rob G]

I started off reading this thread through and didn't realise until i got to the end that is a very recent one. Greetings to all overseas members - I'm sure when this forum was set up with the name Grapevine, it was never envisaged that it would attract, almost accidentally, such exotic visitors to its stalls.

I'm near Edinburgh and have a vine I grew from a cutting in a 8 x6 greenhouse, so it never gets as big as an outdoor one, particularly those in the US.

The advice about taking cuttings is right, but ... and there's always a but isn't there? But you must never cut the hardwood of a vine during the growing season - the softwood can be removed but I don't think you can take softwood cuttings. The reason is that a vine bleeds - the sap doesn't seem to have the coagulating power that is necessary. I believe my father once cut the hardwood part of a vine and had to put a hose clip on really tight to stop the flow.

Vines need to be pruned each winter, typically in early January in the northern hemisphere, when there is absolutely no sap flowing. It seems that a variety of ways for planting the cuttings have worked for different people - I do the lay flat in a pan approach, though I hadn't heard of stripping the back off the 'down' side before.

While in the Mosel, Germany this summer I was intrigued to see cuttings had been stuck into wine bottles full of water and had struck very happily. Seemed an appropriate home for them !

Rob