🌿 Cutting

A cutting is a piece of vine shoot from which a new plant grows. It is the most common way to propagate grapes. Vines are usually not planted from seed, because seeds give plants unlike their parents. A cutting keeps all the properties of the variety.

Cuttings are made in winter from woody shoots, usually with several buds. They are then rooted in a vine nursery, in a damp medium. After some time they grow roots and young leaves. The young plants are then set out in the vineyard.

A cutting is often taken from a good donor vine, and the offspring is a copy: this is how grape clones are propagated. Frequently the cutting is grafted onto a rootstock, that is, onto roots of another vine species resistant to the pest phylloxera. For vineyards this is essential: most European vines grow on grafted roots. The method is tied to winemaking in general, since the future wine depends on the health of the vine.