Grapes and Blackberry Starts

[Broke Down Ranch]

Ok all you folks that do grapes and/or blackberries. I want to get cutting from my newly-found muscadine vine as well as my thorned AND thornless variety of blackberries. When should I get the cuttings for starting? Now? Right before our first frost? Deep into winter?

 

[Greensage45]

Hi,

It's me! LOL

Have you figured out your processes yet? Like, where they will be set, in a coldframe or individually in pots? Are you using rooting hormone? Have you considered doing a Willow branch elixir?

Aside from those questions, I do apologize if you already established techniques in another post. I think I do miss some posts! I am not sure how LOL.

Anyways, I find that cuttings take much better as the ground temps drop. Typically when this happens is the same time that the branches of what ever it is you want to start drops its leaves. This is the 'signaling' of dormancy. There is no leaf to support and so the plant reverts to an expansion of roots. Of course some plants do not shed all the leaves but retain them only suspended in growth.

So, if you are going to clear the brambles now for Fall, go ahead and take your cuttings for starts. I would say that two leaf nodes would be optimal, so would be about 12 inches long. At least one leaf node would need to be placed below the surface of the soil line. Coolness is key to keeping these from rotting, and once winter sets in then just water them if there is no natural precipitation. By Spring you will either have new sprouts or dead sticks! If you can contain the humidity, like with use of mason jars or a cold-frame, then there will be less loss I would believe... but if you simply start 50 starts in a plowed area and keep moist you might find your ratio is perfect for your needs!

Nature has an uncanny way of wanting to survive!

Ron :bouquet

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Well, I was thinking I would probably use hormone and start each individually in pots (I save everything I ever buy plants in) that way it would give me time to know where to plant. I haven't decided exactly where I want to put them, I just know I want MORE. Actually, the blackberries (both types) have an "assigned" area so perhaps I could go ahead and start those directly in the ground. But the grapes - that's a whole 'nother matter since I did not know I even had them a month ago....lol. But where they are at this time is not really a good place for them - they might like it but once the goat pen gets built there I'm pretty sure they won't survive....

 

[journey11]

I had been reading on starting grapes from cuttings, so this is what I found, but have not yet tried... Ron is right about the temps/dormancy...you can also do it in very early spring when you are pruning. As I understand it, one year old growth on grapes works best. The book I read (Successful Berry Growing - Gene Lodgson) said to take many cuttings, since they can be hard to start, and he recommended starting them directly in the ground, burying most of the stem and making sure you have it right side up.

On blackberries, I start them from the shoots I get. When I do my fall pruning, if I find runners popping up about a foot or more from the main plant, I carefully dig them out and plant them elsewhere. If they are too close to the main plant, I prune them out, leaving only the 3 strongest canes. I never thought of trying to start a cutting on them. I will check that out next year! My grandpa has started some from seedlings that came up on their own. This works well too, but I never have any because we don't let any berries hit the ground!

 

[Ladyhawke1]

I got my Blackberries cuttings in June from a friend. I put them in a raised bed against the fence. I put lots of chicken poop in with them.

The only picture I have right now is above. The brambles are to the far right in the picture. They are growing like crazy. I am only worried as how to prune them correctly.

In a few weeks I hope to get them trellised properly. All it takes is $$$$$.