Harvest Cuttings As Late As Possible Before Freezing Harvest grape cuttings as late as possible after leaf fall, before the onset of negative temperatures, to minimize storage time. While stored, canes remain alive and undergo oxidation; the warmer the storage (around 10°C), the faster reserves are consumed, weakening rooting and seedling vigor. Leaf fall caused by light frosts of 3–4°C is a valid signal to start, and November timing is normal in many regions. Balance this with the risk that sudden freezes and snowfall can make cutting and sheltering impossible overnight.
Use Preliminary Pruning To Be Ready And Remove Unripe Wood Pre-prune vines selected for cuttings so you can act fast: remove laterals, leaves, and all excess pruned wood, leaving only the canes intended for harvesting. Begin right after frost-induced leaf drop, or even earlier in late September by removing green, unripened canes that will never ripen and are unfit for cuttings or wintering. Unripe wood later darkens to resemble ripe canes, so clearing it while still green makes selection cleaner and quicker. Wet late autumns naturally moisten canes and reduce subsequent soaking; after dry autumns, plan on soaking before storage.
Select Replacement-Shoot Canes And Favor The Most Productive Arms The best material comes from canes on replacement spurs that carried no crop; fruiting canes are nutritionally depleted and yield poorer cuttings. If a young bush offers little choice, take what is available, but where possible favor parts of the vine that produced earlier-ripening, larger, more marketable clusters. Mark those superior arms with tags during harvest to remember where to collect cuttings, a practice used in commercial plantings to lift future productivity.
Choose Medium-Thickness Wood With A Small Pith (8–10 mm) Avoid extremes in diameter: very thin canes rarely produce strong seedlings, and “fattening” shoots with thick pith perform worse. What matters is the pith-to-diameter ratio; the thicker the pith, the poorer the cutting, including for grafting. Aim for canes roughly 8–10 mm in diameter for dependable results.
Match Storage Method To Volume And Facilities For small batches, cut immediately to 2–4 buds (about 35 cm), paraffin both ends to prevent drying, soak if the autumn was dry, wrap in newspaper, seal in a plastic bag, and store at the bottom of a refrigerator. For larger volumes, keep canes long until spring; outdoor trench storage is risky because wet, mild winters can rot the wood and dry, snowless frosts can kill it. In a cellar, keeping in moist sand is hard to monitor, whereas long canes store well in polyethylene bags when conditions are right.
Build Each Cutting Around A Full Diaphragm And Disease-Free Wood Build each future cutting around a full diaphragm at the lower bud—the node opposite a tendril or cluster—because this zone concentrates reserves and roots more reliably. While preparing canes for storage, plan the cuts so each segment in spring can be trimmed 2–3 mm below such a bud; leave extra length now and verify the diaphragm pattern along the cane. Use only mature, clean wood without cracks, swellings, or black and brown spots; remove late-ripening, oidium-marked canes instead of propagating from them.