January- Make your own grape vines for free, take cuttings now.

Gardening Costa Cálida, Propagating grape vines from prunings

At this time of year the farmers and neighbours are busy pruning back their grape vines, reducing abundant growth to just a small knobbly trunk, which hardly looks capable of putting out the vast amounts of fresh growth and luscious bunches of grapes it will produce in the forthcoming year.

This is a golden opportunity for anyone who has always harboured notions of growing their own sunkissed grapes in their Spanish garden, as the cuttings root really easily and are available in abundance when pruning is underway.

Selecting material for cuttings.

Grape cuttings are best done now, whilst the plant is dormant , so select pruned pieces that are around the thickness of a pencil or slightly thicker and try to get pieces with the nodes fairly close together.

Now, by nodes, we mean the points at which the new buds will sprout. Pick up a twig and look closely and you will see that the vine appears to grow in little sections, and above each little section you will see the first stirrings of a tiny bud.

When we plant grape cuttings, we plant them deep , as once below ground those little buds will develop into roots, so by choosing pieces that have their nodes fairly close together, you dont have to dig such a deep hole.

Make sure you are absolutely clear about which way is up, as its easy to plant pieces upside-down once having cut the long growth off. A little trick is to cut one end flat, the other pointed, with the top cut just above the node, but youll find your own method.

Cut pieces to 4 or 5 nodes long. Depending on the variety, you may end up with pieces anywhere from 30cm- 50cm long.

Make sure the stem is still "green" inside and choose this years growth- dont go for older wood. Basically, pretty much everything that is cut off will be this years growth- last years will be visibly woodier and a different colour.

Planting.

Not all cuttings will strike. We have had varied success, the first time virtually everything took, the second year we only had a few take, so it is common practice to plant them in a nursery bed and plant out at a year old, or if planting directly in situ, put 2 or 3 in the same place and sacrifice one or two if they all strike.

Our Spanish neighbours plant directly into the ground, but you can start cuttings off in a variety of ways;

In water. Stand in a bucket of water with at least 3 nodules covered by water. After a short time roots should develop.

Grape vines root well with slight heating of their feet. If you have access to a propagator, they love a warm bottom and a cool head. By underheating slightly you will get a stronger root system. A common error for novice grape growers, which is apparently where we went wrong on year 2,  was to have lots of good top growth which then died off because we had not rooted the cuttings deeply enough- the cutting appeared to be racing off at full speed, but all that had happened was that it had expended all its energy by putting out healthy leaves, leaving nothing to form roots at the bottom.

 In the first year we planted directly into a trench , in the second we knew we were moving and planted them into pots, but didnt plant deep enough.

Another method for heating which was recommended by a grower, is to create a grape cuttings sausage.

Lay out a piece of black plastic with a depth of 3-4 nodules of cutting. Spread damp compost onto the plastic, then lay the cuttings on at intervals.

Roll it all up like a swiss roll, and stand on top of the fridge in a dark room. This gives a slight underheat and the cuttings root well.

Alternatively, plant in pots, but make sure theyre deep enough and that you dont overwater or the cuttings just rot off. We use a mixture of compost and soil with good drainage at the bottom of the pot. 

To plant directly  into the ground, dig a deep trench with an upright back, scatter a little sand in the bottom to ensure good drainage, and bury cuttings to leave only one nodule and new bud showing.

In the UK youd be told to dust the cut with hormone rooting powder, but the Spanish neighbours dont bother and they always seem to have good success.

Leave the plants to grow in situ until next autumn, then transplant.

And that, is basically it, incredibly simple, satisfying and free.

Theres plenty of material around, so give it a go!