Layering grape vines for faster growth

Trying to grow grape vines has been my passion for a few years. But I could start off only last year when I found a sapling in a nearby nursery and brought it home. I do not have space to grow it in a greenhouse. Only way I could think of was growing it along the compound wall. This is how I started off with the small sapling, planting it on the ground near my compound wall.

Fortunately, it started growing well and started spreading along the compound wall. I had used nylon threads to guide the grape vine on to the compound wall as well as for it to grow further along the compound wall. It was quite heartening to see the luxurious growth of my grape vine, almost like a hedge, with plenty of new branches and sprouts.

Then came this caterpillar menace! A large caterpillar appeared and started eating off the leaves. It was removed immediately and somehow new caterpillars have not appeared so far. May be they are more interested in other vegetable leaves than grape vine leaves!

When the number of side branches increased, I had to prune some of them to keep the growth in a good pattern. I had an idea of planting the pruned branches in a garden pot. Of the three which I planted, one sprouted well and produced a new plant. I was quite happy and gave it to a friend who has started a new grape vine at home. But my second attempt at planting more pruned branches did not succeed and all of them withered away.

It was then that I thought of layering a long grape vine which could reach well into the ground soil from the top of the compound wall.

A long vine was brought down into a pit made on the ground with a scoop. It was coming down and then going up in a U shape.

After keeping the bent portion of the grape vine in the pit on the ground, soil was added on top of it, covering a portion of the grape vine, hoping that new roots will sprout from there.

Here you can see the full extent of the branch used for layering. It is coming down from the compound wall into the soil and then going up along the compound wall. After that it is spreading along the top of the compound wall.

That was a few days back and now I can see two new roots sprouting near the region where the grape vine is entering the soil. A tendril is also seen there at the axil, which was there earlier. Now I have snapped the vine partially above that to encourage the roots to grow better. I am sure that there will be more roots from the part of the vine beneath the soil. After waiting a few more days, I will cut of the snapped portion of the vine a few inches above the soil so that the remaining part will grow as a new long grape vine in my backyard.

Here is an update on layering of grape vine which was posted a few days back. I noticed more roots on the soil surrounding the part of the grape vine covered by soil. Then I was bold enough to cut off the connection to the part of grape vine in below the soil from the parent plant. You can see roots at the base of the stump clearly and there were couple of roots coming outside from the part of the vine under the soil as well. As I saw these, I did not scrape out the soil to see how many roots are there inside. Though I will be able to see new roots better if I scrape out the soil, there is also a chance that some of the new roots could be damaged.

This video clip was taken the day after cutting the connection from the parent vine. The full extent of the new independent plant can be seen right from the stump up to the tip on the compound wall. There are plenty of leaves, all looking quite fresh. If the roots had not been well established, these leaves would have become withered in the bright sunlight of the previous day. So I am sure that there are enough roots to bring water up to the tip of the plant, which is about two meters from the soil. If it was a small stem cutting, leaves could survive a few days even without water from the roots. But it is unlikely with such a long vine, especially with a lot of tender leaves near the tip, which would have shown evidence of dehydration if the roots were not established.

Meanwhile I had a look at the vines of the parent plant once again and I found this part of the vine above the ground developing roots from axils. So I thought of starting a new experiment of planting stem cuttings once again. You may remember that I had tried it earlier and of the seven or eight ones I had planted, I got just one plant.

This time, instead of planting just the lowermost part of the stem cutting as I usually do, I made a longer groove in the soil and placed the stem cutting in a slanting fashion. This was done because the longer root was not at the lowermost part of the stem, but a little above that. I wanted that part also to be covered by soil so that it might favour better growth of the roots.

After that I covered that long part with soil. This stem cutting has been planted in an 18 inch garden pot. If it grows out to be a big grape vine like the parent vine, this garden pot may not be enough to provide enough nutrition and space for growth of the roots. But I had no other option as the courtyard where it has been planted is fully paved with concrete tiles. So a new experiment of growing grape vine has been started and shall post updates later.