Fruits and Nuts: Grafting Grape Vines (Picture Warning for slow internet), 1 by PeteB7

PeteB7 wrote:
I am new to gardening and in fact this started when I decided to clean up the invasive plants in our yard, wild grapes, Virginia Creeper, and Oriental Bittersweet. I cleared out our neglected side bed that had 4 small trees originally planted in a row as a barrier, it had become overgrown with all of the invasive plants mentioned and much more. The trees are nearly all dead. I think I have the wild grapes identified here as Vitis riparia and they are clearly not good for eating. Details here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1273177/

Thinking that all these vines grow so well, and that the wild grape vine is probably 25 years old with an extensive root system, I had the idea to graft some of the seedless type table grape scions onto the remaining trunks. I bought a Himrod vine last summer and Ernie says they're some of the best he's had and was kind enough to send me some cuttings:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1274136/

I also like red table grapes very much and did some research coming up with Reliance, and Canadice which I found locally at HD, Lowes, and Walmart. Walmart, by the way, had the most hardy looking Canadice vines:

http://www.millernurseries.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1...

http://www.millernurseries.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=4...

The established vine that I'm guessing is 25 years old has 2 branches left, one about 1" and another about 1.75" in diameter. I decided to try the 1" first making 2 slots one on top and one on the bottom. I grafted 2 Canadice vines to the top slot, side by side and 2 Reliance to the bottom slot also side by side. I have no idea if side by side was a good thing to do or not but this was just an experiment so we'll see how it goes. I tried to follow this guide but I did not feel that I have the skill to do the diagonal mid cuts and get them to match up so I just left them out:
http://berrygrape.org/an-illustrated-guide-to-field-grafting...

Also this, but the pictures are not as good:
http://winemakersjournal.blogspot.com/2009/04/grafting-grape...

I noticed that this mango grafting is similar but without the diagonal mid cuts:
[HYPERLINK@www.youtube.com]

I first made a fresh perpendicular cut to the main trunk with a pruning saw, sap began to ooze from the cut and the vine was clearly alive with a few new flowers off the trunk. There were suckers but I removed them about a week ago before reading that it is not a bad idea to leave a few. Then I made the face cut in the trunk also with the pruning saw, the trunk wood was so hard I just could not do it with a knife, I did then shave it with a sharp knife to get a clean smooth surface. A diagonal cut was made with the knife at the bottom of the cut to provide a small V.

Next, I took the store bought Reliance vines and cut off the roots to prep the scion, I'm not sure if the position of this cut is important, will the root area graft to the main trunk? I thought it might not so I cut above the root area. This vine was damp and softer so it was easy to make the matching face cut with a knife, then a small diagonal cut to form a V at the bottom. As I got close to the center I noticed that the center 1/8" diameter part of the scion was very soft, almost falling out. Is this an indication that I cut too deep?

I put these 2 Reliance scions into the bottom trunk cut and held them in place with a rubber band, temporarily. The 2 Canadice scions were prepped in the same way and put into the top trunk cut side by side. The graft was held in place with Parafilm grafting tape that I purchased on ebay. The rubber band was moved up to start with the tape, then completely out of the way once the taping was nearly complete. The tape stretches easily and this is how tension is provided, seemed a bit too stretchy to me. I'm tempted to put a hose clamp around it, LOL!

Some suggest using a cut toward the bottom of the trunk to relieve sap pressure so that the scions are not pushed out by the pressure.

I'm not saying that this is a good way to graft, as I said I'm new to this and I'm looking for suggestions and advice - it might not work at all.

It was getting dark by the time I finished and I'll have to take a final picture tomorrow.
This shows the two trunks of the old vine with a fresh cut to the smaller trunk:

This message was edited May 10, 2013 11:01 PM

This message was edited May 10, 2013 11:12 PM