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A. Obtain cutting wood.--If the cuttings were obtained prior to the coldest winter weather before the buds could be winter killed, they must be properly held until they are ready to plant. One way to do that is to cut them to proper size and wrap them in wet newspaper and then put them into a plastic bag and put them into a refrigerator. If they are obtained in early spring then the buds need to be examined to see if they are living. This is done by slicing a bud to examine its cross section. There should be a pea green segment inside the bud. Also, the cutting itself should be a healthy green underneath a nick cut into the wood. Repeat this process from the top bud until you find a living bud. How many buds are dead on a single cutting should give you some idea of the collective cutting quality.
B. Plant cuttings. -- Soak the cutting bases in water for several hours before planting, then insert them into the rooting medium to a depth to cover at least the bottom two buds. The cuttings in the picture were planted in ordinary potting soil in a cardboard
cereal container. Each cutting has three buds with the slanted top cut about one inch above the top bud. The slant is trivial and is simply a marker to show which end of the cutting is the top. The one inch top length is also trivial, but cutting too close to the bud increases the chance the bud will desiccate. Early stages of bud growth on new cuttings can be seen in the picture to the left. The cardboard cereal container provides good water drainage. The containers should be placed in a warm environment. A small heating pad set on "low" placed under a cookie sheet provides a good source of bottom heat, but any warm area near 75-85 degrees such as the top of the refrigerator or heating duct will probably work with bud swell happening faster in warmer environments.
C.Things to avoid.--Don't overwater. One of the causes of failure in starting cuttings is to use a water proof container, even when it has drain holes in the bottom, and then saturate the growth medium with water. Soggy potting soil then excludes the air needed for root growth, and often causes what few rootlets that do form to rot. One of the common problems faced by the home propagator occurs when the shoots that initially look great begin to wilt. It appears the wilting is due to lack of water so the shoots are watered more. It is true the leaves are drying out, but it is due to root rot and adding water to the potting soil merely exaggerates the problem.
Using cuttings with dead buds is a certain waste of time. Always be sure of the health of the buds.
Don't accidently plant the cutting upside down. If uncertain, check the scar left by the leaf. It should be underneath the bud.
Don't get impatient and pull a cutting up to see how it is doing below the soil. If is pushing roots, you will damage them, and often a bud will be pushing from below the soil and will be broken off if the cutting is pulled up.
Don't start the cuttings too early in the season. Unless you have plenty of room, and good southern exposure to the sun, holding the growing cuttings is a problem, especially if there are lots of them. There have been reports of spousal abuse resulting from these activities.
C. Time Frame--The estimates of time from planting indoors to setting the rooted plants outdoors is primarily dependent on the temperature at which the cuttings are held. Here are some approximations.
1. Initial water soak--Overnight or 12 hours. (not critical)
2. From planting to bud swell-- Ten days with bottom heat.
3. Bud burst--5-7 days after bud swell or roughly two weeks after planting.
4. Obvious individual leaves--Three weeks after planting. At this time, the cuttings can be removed from
bottom heat and, as seen on the right, placed in a sunny south facing window ledge to await planting time.
5. Planting out in the vineyard-- Ideally, step 4 should be achieved around 2 weeks or so prior to the last frost date in your area. This is usually the time tender plants such as tomatoes would normally be set out. In northern Illinois this is no earlier than the second week in May. The cuttings should be hardened off by placing outdoors on sunny warm days in their original containers for several weeks prior to setting them out in the vineyard. They should be brought indoors if there is any danger of frost. If the plants haven't been hardened off prior to planting, or there is danger of deer browsing, using half gallon milk cartons with the bottoms cut out to surround the young plants is advantageous. Finally, this first year is a critical time for the vine as its root system is small and watering the plants is essential if there isn't adequate rainfall.
For another description of growing grape vines from cuttings, go to the following website: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/cuttings.html