I've grown all my vines from cuttings and for the most part have had very good success. Where I've had difficulty with cuttings has usually been a result of poor quality cuttings that I've received from a supplier.
Getting the cuttings to grow is a very easy process;
1) get the cuttings from a supplier, keep them cool, wrapped in plastic with a slightly moist paper towel in the refrigerator until your ready to go.
2) soak the cuttings in room temperature water for 24 hours before you plan to plant them.
3) Using a sharp pruning tool, nip about 1 cm off the bottom of the cutting.
4) Dip the cutting in a root hormone (I use the powder stuff from Home Depot).
5) Plant the cutting in a 4" x 4" biodegradeable (compressed peat moss) planters and fill with 50/50 peat moss - perlite mixture.
6) litely pack the planting mixture into the pot around the cutting.
7) Place the pots on a heat mat so that the bottom of the cuttings are warmed to about 75-80 degres F.
8) Water good the first time so the mixture is moist. After the first day you'll probably see the sides of the pots have soaked up most of the water.
9) Water again when the sides of pots are drying out.
10) Keep the pots in a cool (60-65 degrees F), dark room for the first 2-3 weeks (this allows the cuttings to begin to form roots before the buds leaf out).
11) After 2-3 weeks give the cuttings lite and more heat (70-75 F) room air temp.
12) After about 4 weeks (maybe sooner - maybe later) you'll probably see roots poking out the bottom of the pots and your cuttings will have leaves.
13) When you see the roots poking out, transfer the plants to the ground if it's warm enough, or to larger pots until you can plant them outside.
IF YOU WANT TO PURCHASE GRAPE CUTTINGS GOT TO GRAPE VINE SALES ON THIS BLOG.
Unless you are intimately aware of the regulations regarding movement of plant materials (grapes or otherwise and this includes cuttings) in and out of provinces in Canada with respect to the Plant Protection Act, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you contact your local Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) office to ensure you can do so legally. Last thing you want to do is break the law and/or be known for being the person who importing a pest from another location to a place where the pest didn't exist.
I mentioned in a recent blog about new varieties for 2010 and about adding Joffre to the test vineyard in BC. The Joffre cuttings are going to come from my plants that I'm growing in Alberta. Now, there is no movement restrictions on cuttings comming from Alberta to BC, HOWEVER, the cutings originally came from Nova Scotia and there is a ban on movement of grape plants or plant material from Nova Scotia to BC. There is no ban on movement of cuttings from Nova Scotia to Alberta. However, to reduce any possibility that a pest got transported with the original cuttings and now exists on the plants I have in Alberta, the CFIA would like my cuttings that I'll take from my Alberta vines, treated here in Alberta before moving them to BC. The treatment, is a simple process of submerging your cuttings in hot water. I wont go into the full details of the treatment here but once you complete the treatment, which eradicates the pest, the CFIA will provide a "movement certificate" which then will allow me to legally move the cuttings to BC and more importantly ensure I'm not going to bring a pest to BC on my cuttings.
If you have any questions on movements or pests, call your local office of the CFIA.
I'll do an update on the treatment, process, costs, and propegation success rate this spring when I have the treatments done.
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