It's not easy and requires a lot of patience. Growing a vine from grape seeds is, without exaggeration, an exciting experiment with a mysterious outcome. If you want to try it, you will find clear instructions here.
Prudent selection of seeds and preparatory work
In the run-up to the actual sowing, the focus is on the quality of the selected grape seeds. Here you lay the foundation for a successful course. A perfect seed is firm to the touch and will sink to the bottom in water. The selected seeds are soaked in 0.2% potassium nitrate for 24 hours to remove the natural germination inhibition. This is followed by the cold stimulus, called stratification.
In order to get grape seeds in the mood for germination, they have to go through a simulated winter. The vegetable compartment of the refrigerator is ideal for this. Here's how the plan works:
- fill the pre-treated seeds with damp sand in a plastic bag
- twist the bag into a sausage and place in the vegetable drawer of the fridge
- repeatedly check for sufficient moisture during the following 8-12 weeks
Sowing Guide
After the grape seeds have been given the illusion of a winter, they are ready to germinate. They can leave the refrigerator to be sown about 1 centimeter deep in small seed pots with lean substrate. Moistened with water from the spray bottle, a constant heat of 20 degrees Celsius is required from this point on. Ideally, a heatable mini greenhouse (€7.95) is available for this purpose.
Alternatively, cover the pots with cling film and place them on a heat mat. It takes 2 to 8 weeks for the tender cotyledons to appear. During this time the substrate must not dry out. The seed is also protected from direct sunlight. When the seedlings have reached a height of 8 centimetres, they are pricked out. How to do it right:
- Half fill 10 cm pots with pricking soil
- use the pricking stick to make a hollow in the substrate
- carefully lift a seedling out of the seed pot
- insert into the pricking soil in such a way that it reaches up to the cotyledons
- up to a height of 30 centimeters indoors and then plant them in the garden
tips and tricks
If a grape seed turns into a magnificent vine, the triumph becomes perfect through refinement. By grafting onto a resistant substrate, prudent hobby gardeners give their home-grown vines the necessary defenses against cunning phylloxera and infamous powdery mildew.
GTH