Cold Hardy Grapes and Vines: Summer Field Notes

goji berries have these attractive purple flowers all summer, they have this unusual perpetual growth through the whole season into late fall where the vines have all stages of fruit - the flowers, green fruit and red ripe fruit. today I collected some cuttings a bit late in the season (july 8), usually june is better but now there are long 1-2 ft shoot extensions of pliable softwood to pick, and that new growth that I'll stick under our mist has flowers and fruit and all! and they root in about two weeks. these goji are growing on established vines (sort of a shrub or an upright vine it's a weird plant) and it's heathy in zone 3 (-40). I've had some difficulty overwintering them in the nursery, but I suspect that they are like grapes, once established the cold hardiness improves. I would advise a sheltered location if you're on the Canadian prairies, or if you're in the city that's probably enough. the fruit are unique tasting, like a grassy tomato, I enjoy them. another fun property, I can root small cuttings and that same fall the small plants will fruit, so I pick them for our seed shop. goji are easy to grow from seed, but cuttings are faster for the nursery.

wild grapes, cold stratified from nov through march so about five months in the fridge in some damp vermiculite, planted in april. they're a good size to transplant now, I usually put 2-3 to a cell in our plug trays but singles are also ok. funny story I divided up any earlier batch in june and we actually got frost mid june here in southern MB and it took out most of those outside small tender grape seedlings. So my advice when you grow these is to make sure they have some frost protection the first spring. all grapes seem to see about five months of cold conditioning for the seeds to germinate, so if you're going to grow them from seed start them early in the fall. you can also plant outside into pots, and then generally the seedlings will have more frost tolerance than greenhouse transplants.

valiant grapes from hardwood collect in early spring, these were on bottom heat for a month in the root cellar, then moved onto the mist bench to start hardening off. now at about six weeks they have enough roots to pot up. about half are going to stay in bins to root in bulk and I'll sort out the largest as bare root plants at the end of the season, for this same potting mix in a bulb crate topped with the medium they rooted in, a method that's growing on me, using the black bulb crates like a small air pruning bed, easy to move around and reuse. grapes can be propagated from softwood, but this hardwood method produces bigger plants and makes good use of what you prune off, the trick is a heat mat to get them to callous and some mild conditions for the top growth, here I'm going from a humid root cellar to a humid greenhouse under shade, and eventually they'll go outside.

what a month in southern Manitoba, rain every day and here we got a light frost two nights this week - this thermometer is up high near the house, for sure in low areas it approached freezing. some small grapes and walnuts looked frost damaged, I just figured it was all the rain. in the city you would have been fine. Probably the rain added some protection, think my tomatoes are fine. Peppers were still inside, and they don't enjoy even 5C so another win for planting late.

valiant grapes. some were growing in a tree.

planted some grapes along this east wall, stucco with morning sun, heaped up with black soil and old wood chip then topped with straw. the eaves through will get directed into the bed, and the thick stucco should radiate some heat to help. hopefully a good spot for grapes, brianna, frontenac blanc, and some elmer swenson selections.

grapes in a forest context. tried for years without the cage, and the vines would always get trimmed back by wildlife. finally put up some stucco wire cages and now the vines are reasonably safe to grow

amur grape germinating after five months of stratification. One way to know your seed is ready is when any of them start to sprout in the bag, easier to plant at this stage. These went into plug trays 2-3 per cell, will see how they do.

trying grape cuttings like this, in our root cellar where it's a bit cool and quite damp. dipped into some iba talc, a bit of cambium exposed, 2-3 node cuttings. last year through sheer neglect we had bundles of cuttings root in these conditions, but I wonder if I should move them outside and just keep in the shade. I was going to wait for some root development, and the root cellar isn't being used, figure at least they don't need to get watered in here. have a few shelves like this. advice welcome, still figuring out grapes

valiant grapes coming along, I finally caged them. I think rabbits have been trimming them, so just a simple roll of stucco wire gives the small vines some protection and a scaffold.

some potted grapes, minnesota 78 very similar to valiant. tasty, large seeds. I imagine they’re larger on an established vine, these are going in the ground soon. #grapes

hops flowering. I started these bines from fuggle seeds years ago, creates a wall around part of the garden

hops are fun, I setup poles and they find them. if I run strings between them they’ll span them and fill in

riverbank grape from seed.

virginia creeper seeds are ripe when the little grape-like fruits turn blue. This patch of vines where I like to collect are old and overtaking a stand of chokecherry.#seedsaving #virginiacreeper

trying to identify grapes on the left, center is Beta from a young vine, right is riparia or wild grapes, and left is from a large vine planted in 2010. valiant? all are ripe here today and cold hardy zone 3 with no winter protection.

hops monster. there’s just a single 1” bamboo pole in there somewhere. #hops

netted these small grapes to keep.. rabbits? from eating them.

riverbank grape vitis riparia, super cold hardy, survives above the snow in -40. video is softwood cuttings rooted in two weeks under mist. #grapes #propagation #softwoodpropagation

vitus riparia, or riverbank grape germinating after a long six months in cold stratification, in a bag with damp paper towel and in a fridge crisper. #seedgermination

hops are over head height now four weeks from when they started growing. our bines are five years old and started from seed, here I give them simple poles to climb then they’ll span between the poles and male a wall of hops by the end of the summer, sometimes I’ll run twine to guide them. #hops

the U of Sask campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has some super nice landscaping, here’s an arbor with some impressive old wild grape vines #grapevine

working on covering this wall with vines and espalier apples. Metal siding is easy for vines I just back out some of the sheet metal screws and wrap some copper wire around it, no need to add any other support

these cascade hops are the first to show some roots in our mist setup after two weeks. Usually after there’s an inch or more if roots it’s time to pot them up and start to harden them off. I’ll wait for a few dozen to be ready before moving them, otherwise if starts to turn into too many small batches. Last year I found cuttings in a tray always have some early and late to root, even. few weeks apart. If would be more simple to start them in 50 cell trays and wait for the entire tray to root before moving them, and skip the step of potting up, but that would take up many times the space. Maybe next year. #propagation #softwoodpropagation #propagate #propagating #propagatingplants #softwoodcuttings #mistpropagation

Yellow #honeysuckle, Lonicera dioica a flowering vining honeysuckle native to Canada I haven’t noticed before growing up the prunus virginiana. Maybe should propagate it. Anyone know what it is? Cold hardy to -40C #floweringvine #lonicera