Maybe I got carried away?

Last fall I was figuring out how to add 50 more plants to my vineyard. I planned to buy 25 Carmenere. When I got things figured out it looked like I could go to at least 30 of each variety (4).

I got some poor Syrah vines originally and most died and I needed at least 14 of those and 9 each of the Merlot and Cabs. Well, none of the originals were grafts so I figured I just root some from my 3 yr old plants.

This is where things got fuzzy

I cut somewhere around 40 of each variety. Figured if a low rate of rooting and I'd still have enough. Put 4-5 cuttings in each 3 gallon pot in good moist potting soil. They are on carts in my shop. Got to thinking again... and reading here about heating pads. Well, went back out and got a bunch more cuttings of each. Put at least 25-30 of each in long heavy plastic bags with moist potting soil. I had an old house type heating pad so I covered it with plastic and put the bags on it. It has an auto shut off so whenever I walked by or thought of it I turned it on. I figured one or the other might work

A couple days back I thought maybe I'd check progress... Looks like I might have way over a 100 that look to be putting out roots. Actually, every one I pulled up was starting to put out roots. Either one, in the pots or in the bags.

I'm going to start putting plants in individual peat pots and any extra are going to be bedded in the garden for a year or two?? In any case it looks like I have more than enough for me and probably a couple wine making friends.

Great! How long did it take to get the roots off the cuttings?

RedSun said:

Great! How long did it take to get the roots off the cuttings?

Click to expand...

I took the cuttings before the first hard freeze, late Oct and early Nov. They are just now putting out roots. They have been in my shop (50-55 degrees) all winter. The ones on the heating pad are noticably better at this point.

I'm going to till up an old garden area and add some sand and peat. Retill until it's pretty mellow and then put in 3 rows of the cuttings that I'm not going to plant. The best ones will be potted individually until I plant them.

I still have to build out 2 terraces for a planting area with the exception of the Syrahs which I worked on last fall. I'll be able to go right into the ground with those if I want to. Might be easier working on the terraces if they aren't in however. Remains to be determined.

Sage you have a great green thumb as they would say! Did you use any rooting powder? Any particular potting soil fi miracle grow, Pete moss? I had stuck a few cuttings with rooting powder in a pot in back yard in the spring of last year and kept checking them over the summer pinching off buds that kept developing and they were rooting well I know this cuz I tried removing them every once in a while and discovered they had plenty of root then I did a stupid thing and left them outside all winter long and well they drowned in the pot
Thanks

I did dip them in a solution before potting or bagging the cuttings. My potting mix was mostly just peat with a bag of ?? brand potting soil that happened to be handy.

Looks like this

Well it got interesting when I unpacked the cuttings. I actually had around 75 Syrah cuttings, about equal quantities in the bag and in the big pots. Since I'm still not sure about survival rate, I repotted all into their 2nd temporary home. I didn't want to take any chances so each pot got 2-3 cuttings depending on root developement. Actually had over 85% with roots and the rest had bumps save for less than half dozen. From here they will be planted or given away mid summer. I acn always cut off any excess plants and keep the 2 strongest.

I removed the potted ones because I needed the larger 3 gallon pots for another project. They are now in 2 gallon pots.

jerked one at random out of a pot.



these were out of another pot



new home, color coded white paint on the pots for the Syrahs



In 90+++%, the smaller diameter cutting looked better than those over 3/8" in diam.

I moved them off this table and onto low, flat carts. I'll move the carts outside when the weather is nice and back in at night. Worked great on my last plants.

The almost final chapter of this project. The final will be when I actually know how many are good healthy plants and they move to their final home.

New findings: The cutting in the pots were diferent. Almost all the Syrahs looked good. Virtually none of the Cabs or Merlot had roots.

The bagged cutting were the opposite of the pots. The Cabs and Merlot had lots of roots and the Syrahs did have roots but smaller.

A couple photos of the bags and roots after dumping out of the bag,





They are all potted, on carts and I will move them outside on warm days and in and night. I'll post a couple photos later on when they develope into plants.

Next update on these guys. Back 25 in the photo, big plants, are purchased Carmenere. These will be the 4th variety in my vineyard.

19 Cab (red pot marker) and 19 Merlot (yellow pot marker) are doing very well. I have 21 Syrah in the front (white pot marker) and 15 have put out leaves, 6 more to go. Of the 6, 4 have good swelling buds, 1 ?? and 1 dosen't look good.

I still have to build out my terraces before I can plant them. Probably be mid-late summer before they are in the ground.

Update.
Same group as before. Looks like 15 Syrah, 17 Merlot, 19 Cab and all 25 Carmenere are alive and well.

Taken today almost 2 months from last photo.



I will start working on the terraces for them in the next 2 weeks or whenever the weather cools down. I hope to have them all in the ground by fall. There's a great deal of rock and dirt to be moved for new terraces and I have small equipment to do it with. Probably 2-3 weeks of steady work to do it.

Just a very late update. Almost all were planted by late Aug. I now have 118 plants in my vineyard. I had 1 table grape that came up where I had dug out and moved the others, 7 Cab and 8 Merlot. My wife thought the leftovers would make a nice border behind the house.

I took an excavator up there and made another terrace. We now have 16 plants behind the house. I will have to put up an electric fence around them next spring. I put chicken wire cages around them for now.

2 of the Syrah were not big plants and I have some doubts about a couple others. So, it's back to doing some rooting this winter, but, I will only do a few this time!!

Very nice job indeed!