Help turn my brown thumb green, some new greenwood cuttings, don't want to mess these up.

[Kilohertz]

About 3 weeks ago I stumbled upon a friend who has Marachel Foch growing in his yard, for ground cover, he just lets the birds eat the grapes.

He gave me about 50 clippings, and I put them straight into a bucket of water and left them for a few days to see if they would grow roots. I watched many YouTube videos about greenwood cuttings and found several methods. After week or so and no roots, I tried the second method, and put them in potting soil, watered them every day and kept the soil moist. They seemed happy with about 4 hours of sun each day and looked good for a week. A few new leaves popped out then slowly they started withering up, and now it seems like only about 8 or 10 have any flex to the stems, the rest are crispy. I moved them to full shade about a week ago. A few still have new leaves and look good, but otherwise, I think they are goners.

So today I asked if I could come back for some more, this time I made the cuts myself and tried to get some good healthy sized stems, from last years canes, and immediately removed all but the very top leaves, only one or 2 small leaves left and the new budding leaves, and put them straight into a bucket of water. I had them sitting in the front seat of the truck for the rest of the day and they seem very happy, even some new leaves emerged in only 4 hours, wow!

They are now in the bucket of water in the shade and I would like to know how best to treat these, so I can get them rooted in the vineyard before winter. Our first frost will likely be mid October, enough time?

I'm also trying to find some Marquette that I can get some clippings from in the Okanagan valley, haven't found any yet.

Thank you for your guidance.

Cheers

 

[Xnke]

Those don't have enough time to root to stay outside. Wait until after the vine goes dormant. Take cuttings the size of a pencil, from this year's growth, that are well lignified and brown-barked. Take 3 bud cuttings and make sure the shoot ends all point the same way and mark the shoot end with a slanted internode cut. Keep in the fridge in damp newspaper or peat moss, until January. Take them out, still in the damp media, and keep at 80F constant temp for 2 weeks.

THEN put the root end down in a cup of dirt, keep the shoot end cool/cold and warm up the dirt.

That is the commercial way, and works well. Green rooting works fine but you need to take the cuttings midsummer, June or early July, so they have enough time to form enough roots to start lignifying the canes-or the canes will just die back in the cold. Any of your green cuttings that root will need to be kept indoors and above 45f this winter, but colder than normal summer temps, to give them the best chances. Even then, success is going to be limited this late in the year.

 

[salcoco]

also use some root stimulant on dormant cuttings in spring. use bottom heat but keep tops cool. grow lights will also work. i found good luck in placing them in play sand. it keeps the root are moist during watering intervals.

 

[Kilohertz]

Thank you, much appreciated.

So for now, what is the best thing to do for them, leave them in the bucket of water in the shade, if so for how long, then I assume move them to sand or pots of sandy media? Or should I just scrap these and get proper cuttings when they are dormant this winter?

Cheers

 

[Xnke]

Leave them in water till you have half inch rootlets, then put them in potting mix, but keep soaked another week or so. Then taper off the water, this will help keep foliage from dying off.

Normally I stop trying to root green cuttings mid July, because of the limited time for root and shoot development before first frost.

 

[Kilohertz]

Thank you. I have left them in the bucket of water and they are going gangbusters, leaves sprouting and very green and alive, they look great. I give them about an hour of morning sun then put them in the shade for the rest of the day. Hopefully these will make it. Once potted I will keep up the regimen and then when it gets colder, I will put them in the shop for the winter.

Thanks!