Effect of Stem Cutting Propagation Strategies on Southern Grapevine Cultivars

Jenny B. Ryals, Haley N. Williams, Patricia R. Knight, and Eric T. Stafne, Mississippi State University

Introduction

Propagation of southern grapevine cultivars from stem cuttings can be a challenging endeavor. By developing more efficient and reliable techniques, nurseries can increase their ability to supply grapevine plants to local growers. This not only expands the availability of grapevines in the market but also plays a pivotal role in bolstering the wine industry in Mississippi and other southern states.

Grapevines, in the family Vitaceae, are some of the world’s most important fruit crops (7, 14). They are propagated in many ways: grafting, layering, seeds, and vegetative cuttings. Vegetative cuttings are generally the most popular way to propagate grapevines. Cuttings can take less time to get a rooted plant and are usually more economical (7, 8, 11). In general, cultivars that fall within Vitis vinifera L. are easy to propagate with hardwood cuttings (2, 8 17). However, there are some hybrid cultivars and selections that have been observed to be more difficult to propagate than others, for example, ‘Norton’ (1, 6, 12).

The use of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) aids in the formation of adventitious roots in cutting propagation. The range of IBA that induces the highest root percentages has been reported anywhere from 500 to 2000 ppm, pending the cultivar being propagated (3, 5, 13, 15, 16).

By fine-tuning IBA levels, we hope to enhance the success rate of stem cutting propagation.

Methods

The study took place at the Mississippi State University, MAFES South Branch Experiment Station (SMBES) in Poplarville, MS, using semi-hardwood and hardwood cuttings to replicate opportunities for nursery growers to propagate them at the most efficient time during their seasonal production. Three to four node, middle of shoot/cane cuttings were taken from vines at SMBES. Hardwood cuttings were taken in March 2024 and semi-hardwood cuttings were taken in June 2024. Cuttings were immediately wrapped in a moist paper towel and placed in a Ziploc bag to be stored in a refrigerator between 2°C and 3°C (35°F – 38°F) for 24 hours before applying hormone treatments. Four cultivars of bunch grapes were used: ‘Miss Blanc’, ‘MidSouth’, ‘Norton’ and ‘Mamont Noir’ (9). Hormone treatments of IBA and ascorbic acid were applied as a basal quick dip to cuttings. Ascorbic acid (ASC) has been documented to aid in rooting of difficult to root plant species (10). Hortus (Hortus IBA Water Soluble Salts™, Phytotronics, Inc.®, Earth City, MO) was utilized as the IBA source. The 10 hormone treatments were an untreated control, 50 ppm ASC, 500 ppm IBA, 500 ppm IBA + 50 ppm ASC, 1000 ppm IBA, 1000 ppm IBA + 50 ppm ASC, 1500 ppm IBA, 1500 ppm IBA + 50 ppm ASC, 2000 ppm IBA, 2000 ppm IBA + 50 ppm ASC (Table 1).

Once cuttings received their treatments, they were placed into four and one-half inch deep containers to a depth of two inches. Containers were filled with 100% pine bark substrate (50% fresh:50% aged) and placed under intermittent mist starting out at 6 s every 10 min during daylight hours. Mist timing was adjusted as needed throughout the study. No fertilizer was applied during this study.

The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 4 replications of each treatment combination for both semi-hardwood and hardwood cuttings. Sixty days after treatment application, rooting percentage, total root number and root quality data (Figure 1; data not shown) were collected. Data were analyzed using PROC GLIMMIX with a means separation using DIFF at P≤0.05 in SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute INC., Cary, NC).

Results and Discussion

Semi-Hardwood Cuttings

Hormone treatment had no significant effect on number of roots or rooting percentage for ‘Mamont Noir’, ‘MidSouth’, or ‘Norton’ (Tables 2, 3). ‘Miss Blanc’ had significantly more roots on cuttings dipped in treatments 4 and 8 than cuttings dipped in 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, or 10 (Table 2).  Rooting percentage of ‘Miss Blanc’ was significantly increased when cuttings received treatments 4, 6, and 8 compared to cuttings that received treatments 2, 3, 5, 9, or 10 (Table 3).  Across all hormone treatments, ‘Mamont Noir’ had significantly more roots than ‘MidSouth’, ‘Miss Blanc’, and ‘Norton’, and ‘Mamont Noir’ had significantly greater rooting percentage than ‘MidSouth’ and ‘Norton’ for semi-hardwood cuttings (Table 4).

Hardwood Cuttings

Hormone treatment had no significant effect on number of roots or rooting percentage for ‘MidSouth’, ‘Miss Blanc’ or ‘Norton’ (Tables 5, 6). ‘Mamont Noir’ had significantly more roots on cuttings receiving treatment 1 than cuttings dipped in 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 (Table 5).  Rooting percentage of ‘Mamont Noir’ cuttings were significantly increased when receiving treatment 1 and 4 compared to treatments 6, 9, or 10 (Table 6).  Across all hormone treatments, ‘Miss Blanc’ had significantly more roots than ‘Mamont Noir’, ‘MidSouth’, and ‘Norton’, and ‘Miss Blanc’ had significantly greater rooting percentage than ‘Mamont Noir’, ‘MidSouth’ and ‘Norton’  for hardwood cuttings (Table 7).

Based on the results of these studies, ‘Mamont Noir’ would be recommended to nurseries wanting to grow grapes from semi-hardwood cuttings, although it rooted better from hardwood cuttings. ‘Miss Blanc’ would be recommended to nurseries wanting to grow grapes from hardwood cuttings. We have propagated ‘MidSouth’ before and its performance in this study did not match its normal response. ‘MidSouth’ hardwood cuttings previously achieved 87.5% rooting without the addition of rooting hormones (data not shown). The reason is unknown why it performed poorly in this study, and additional studies will be conducted in the future to determine the reason. In previous studies utilizing methods similar to this study, rooting percentages for ‘Norton’ ranged from 10% to 40.9% (4, 18). ‘Norton’ will require further research to assess hormone and cutting time combinations to improve rooting for nursery production.

Tables

Table 1.  Treatment number key for results.

Treatment Number	Treatment
1	Control
2	50 ppmz ASCy
3	500 ppm IBAx
4	50 ppm ASC + 500 ppm IBA
5	1000 ppm IBA
6	50 ppm ASC + 1000 ppm IBA
7	1500 ppm IBA
8	50 ppm ASC + 1500 ppm IBA
9	2000 ppm IBA
10	50 ppm ASC + 2000 ppm IBA

Table 2.  Effect of hormone treatment on number of roots on semi-hardwood cuttings of four grapevine cultivars.

Hormone Treatmentsz	Mamont Noir	MidSouth	Miss Blanc	Norton
Control	5.75	0	2.25bc	0
50 ppmy ASCx	12.25	2.5	0c	0.5
500 ppm IBAw	4.5	10.75	0c	3.25
50 ppm ASC + 500 ppm IBA	14.75	0	10a	0
1000 ppm IBA	13.5	0	0c	0
50 ppm ASC + 1000 ppm IBA	14	0	9ab	0
1500 ppm IBA	23.75	10.75	6.5abc	0
50 ppm ASC + 1500 ppm IBA	4.5	6.25	9.75a	0
2000 ppm IBA	0	0	0c	0
50 ppm ASC + 2000 ppm IBA	10.5	6.5	0c	0
P-valuev	0.44	0.40	0.005	0.46

Table 3.  Effect of hormone treatment on rooting percentage of semi-hardwood cuttings of four grapevine cultivars.

Hormone Treatmentsz	Mamont Noir	MidSouth	Miss Blanc	Norton
Control	25	0	25ab	0
50 ppmy ASCx	100	25	0b	25
500 ppm IBAw	25	50	0b	25
50 ppm ASC + 500 ppm IBA	75	0	75a	0
1000 ppm IBA	50	0	0b	0
50 ppm ASC + 1000 ppm IBA	50	0	75a	0
1500 ppm IBA	75	50	50ab	0
50 ppm ASC + 1500 ppm IBA	50	25	75a	0
2000 ppm IBA	0	0	0b	0
50 ppm ASC + 2000 ppm IBA	25	25	0b	0
P-valuev	0.17	0.34	0.003	0.46

Table 4.  Number of roots and rooting percentage of semi-hardwood cuttings of four grapevine cultivars across hormone treatments.

Cultivarz	Roots (no.)	Rooting Percentage (%)
Mamont Noir	10.35a	47.5a
MidSouth	3.68b	17.5bc
Miss Blanc	3.75b	30ab
Norton	0.38b	5c
P-valuey	<0.0001	<0.0001

Table 5.  Effect of hormone treatment on number of roots on hardwood cuttings of four grapevine cultivars.

Hormone Treatmentsz	Mamont Noir	MidSouth	Miss Blanc	Norton
Control	19.5a	0	29.75	0
50 ppmy ASCx	8.5abc	0	28.0	0
500 ppm IBAw	11.25abc	0	22.25	0
50 ppm ASC + 500 ppm IBA	17.75ab	1.5	15.0	0
1000 ppm IBA	5.75c	0	32.0	0
50 ppm ASC + 1000 ppm IBA	4.0c	0	21.75	0
1500 ppm IBA	9.75abc	0	32.75	0
50 ppm ASC + 1500 ppm IBA	7.0bc	0	25.5	0
2000 ppm IBA	0.0c	0	24.0	0
50 ppm ASC + 2000 ppm IBA	4.25c	0	17.25	0
P-valuev	0.04	0.46	0.22	n/a

Table 6.  Effect of hormone treatment on rooting percentage of hardwood cuttings of four grapevine cultivars.

Hormone Treatmentsz	Mamont Noir	MidSouth	Miss Blanc	Norton
Control	100	0	100	0
50 ppmy ASCx	50	0	100	0
500 ppm IBAw	75	0	100	0
50 ppm ASC + 500 ppm IBA	100	25	75	0
1000 ppm IBA	50	0	100	0
50 ppm ASC + 1000 ppm IBA	25	0	100	0
1500 ppm IBA	50	0	100	0
50 ppm ASC + 1500 ppm IBA	50	0	100	0
2000 ppm IBA	0	0	100	0
50 ppm ASC + 2000 ppm IBA	25	0	75	0
P-valuev	0.08	0.46	0.55	n/a

Table 7.  Number of roots and rooting percentage of hardwood cuttings of four grapevine cultivars across hormone treatments.

Cultivarz	Roots (no.)	Rooting Percentage (%)
Mamont Noir	8.78b	52.5b
MidSouth	0.14c	2.5c
Miss Blanc	24.83a	95a
Norton	0.0c	0.0c
P-valuey	<0.0001	<0.0001

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