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Late in 2015 I was impressed by the production of local grapes by the owner of the farm and decided it might be interesting to have a grape vineyard. I cut some canes from the existing vines and learned about propagating the cuttings.

This precipitated cultivating additional soil, erecting a trellis, rooting the cuttings in the greenhouse and transplanting them. Just what I needed to fill in time during the winter.

For my new garden at Monte Vista Farm I'm upping my intentions for a vineyard. A friend who is a Master Gardener gave me 50 grape canes that I'm preparing to root.

This Master Gardener recommended the following mix for rooting grape canes:

• Peat moss: 2 parts
• Garden soil: 1 part
• Sand: 1 part

Because my Garden has very sandy soil, I substituted it for soil and sand.

Another recommendation from my friend was stripping the outer layer of each cane above a lower bud, where rooting is likely.

At the right is a diagram of how this turns out.

I used RootBoost hormone to stimulate formation of roots on the canes. Some people say this is unnecessary with grape canes, but I prefer to use it.

This is a mix of two types of mycorrhizae (beneficial fungi), with compatible bacteria available from T and J Enterprises in Spokane.

You can find explanations of the functions and applications of there and in a number of books, for example, The Grape Grower by Lon Rombough.

The combination of fungi and bacteria in BioVam stimulates and enhances growth of plants, especially at the rooting or germination stage, and in the longer term increases plant root growth and yields.

Here's my setup for propagating 50 Concord canes in 2020 for transplanting in 2021 to a new vineyard.

The pots sit on a heat mat. The grow lights are on to provide additional heat, because this time of year is cool.







This links to a gallery including more photos of my process for rooting canes.