Budbreak!

The little 'splits' I described were in fact the beginnings of bud swell. The buds expanded and now budbreak has ocurred. Tiny leaves can be seen protruding from each node.







Interestingly, due to the extremely unseasonably warm weather, the buds broke almost exactly a month before last year. Last year's pictures of budbreak were on April 24th, while this year, they are March 22. Also to note, the seedless Concord's buds are about a day later than the Concord's. It's not a real difference, but that slight difference in genetics is enough to influence the budbreak by a day!

Vine Bleeding

Today, due to the unseasonably warm temperatures, the vines are now bleeding water from the cuts where I pruned. When the temperatures rise, the fluids in the vine start to move, and the vine breaks dormancy. From every cut point, there was a large drop of water hanging. The vine has officially become active. Some buds appear to have very slightly 'split'. It's hard to tell if they are actually split, or I am just imagining it.

Propagation / Pruning Pictures

This is going to be a longer post. It'll contain pictures of the propagating vines for this Spring, and pictures of the recently pruned vines.

Propagation is a very effective way to multiply grapevines. Grapevines may be grown from seeds or cuttings from last year's growth. The seeds may not be genetically identical to the parent, and have a low germination rate. However, cuttings are somewhat easy to propagate and grow faster than from seed. This is done by taking the canes produced from the previous year's growth and cutting them to about three buds long. The cut should be taken just above the top bud you want to use, and just below the bottom bud you want to use. Then, the two lowest buds on the cutting are picked off, leaving only one bud at the top for the energy of the cutting to grow into. The bottom of the cutting is placed in warm water heated by a basic heatpad, which will allow roots to form at the base of the cutting.



The above picture shows a three bud cutting with only the top bud left. Its important to place the cuttings in the correct orientation. If they are placed upside down,the roots and bud will burst upside down and the plant will not survive.



This picture is the vase containing all of the cuttings. I am propagating seedless Concord this year. This is then placed on a heatpad to keep the water warm which will promote the bottom of the cuttings to produce roots, while the top is still cooler and will budbreak slower. This will allow for more growth of roots which will be able to provide enough water and nutrients for the growing cutting. The rocks are simply to allow a buffer zone between the heatpad and the water so the point where the cuttings touch the bottom isn't directly in contact with the heatpad. I'll keep posting as this process continues and I'll be sure to report any updates.



This above picture is a photo of the now - second year Concord. It made the top wire last year, but i pruned off some of the top to allow growth to come from thicker wood.



This photo is the seedless Concord. It is easily seen how much growth occurred last year. I also pruned off several laterals from the main trunk.



This last picture is the fourth year Concord. I pruned off so much growth to leave only two canes to produce for this year.

Spring Pruning / Propagation

It's early March, which means time for pruning! I just completed the pruning on all three vines vines and I'm really looking forward to this year. This is the first year I plan on leaving a full crop load on my 4th year Concord, and I'm expecting to leave a little fruit on the seedless Concord.

The first year Concord was really easy to prune. It made the top wire, but not by much. I cut off some of the smaller shoots from the top and left 5 buds near the top of the growing trunk. I will use 2 for one side of the vine, 2 for the other, and 1 for a renewal spur.

The seedless Concord was pretty easy to prune as well. There were a lot of laterals, which made for some decent cuttings. (I'll talk about cuttings a little later). I left 8 buds on the left cane, and 12 buds on the right cane, along with one bud at the 'fork' of the canes just for good measure. (For a total of 21 buds). I'll probably leave about one grape cluster alternating shoots because of how vigorous it was last season. I might be able to get a little crop out of it this second year (which is little bit of a risk considering most vines shouldn't crop until the third year).

The fourth year Concord was a pain to prune. There were shoots going everywhere from last seasons growth, along with the year before it. I didn't know how to set up cane pruning the previous years that well, so it was kind of a mess when I tried to basically spur prune it. This led to uneven growth, along with some overcropping. This year, I left one cane on the left side with 13 buds (I picked off some of the buds because they were too close together). The right cane extends from the growth from two years ago from the right side and reaches towards the middle of the plant. There were no canes extending from the trunk for a cane to the right, so I just selected this one. It has 10 buds, and extends about six inches past the trunk. I expect to leave all clusters this year for a full fruit load. I'm so excited.

I'll post some more about the seedless Concord cuttings I am propagating the next post, along with how I did it.