The fruit of vines is the grape. They each contain small, often miniscule, seeds called pips. While it is possible to take the pips and grow vines, this is not done. For example, if you see grapevines for sale in California, they are not grown from the seed. Instead, they are produced from what is called a slip or scion.
What is a Slip?
A slip or scion is a vine cutting. It is taken from a healthy plant identical in every way to the product you wish to produce as the end product. The donor parent is as close to being a carbon copy as the intended new grapevine is to be. After all, grapevines have been produced this way for centuries. If any change occurs producing a vine different than the parents, it is the result of mutation.
Why Do You Have to Use a Scion?
If the grower wishes to produce a vine that is the same as its parent plant, it has to use a scion or slip. This is because, if you use a pip, the resulting vine will not necessarily duplicate the parents. Instead, it will reflect the genetic material of the vines or plants used in the fertilization process. Since the pollinator – a bee, may pick up pollen from any of the vines within a large range of the grape vines, the parents could prove to be not only the plant fertilized but any other vine in the neighborhood. The resultant grapevine may be unique, but it may not be what the grower wants and expects. This is why the sources of all grapevines for sale in California and around the world provide only plants grown from slips.
Grafting
Once a slip is obtained from the parent plant, it is grafted onto specific rootstock. The rootstock is selected on such characteristics as:
* Healthiness
* Vigor
* Disease resistance
The process is bench-grafting. The grower places the grafted rootstock into sand. It remains there for one season before it is removed. By this time, the graft has firmly become established. At this point, the scion or slip is referred to as the fruiting wood or bud wood.
An alternative is field grafting. The grower plants the rootstock and lets it establish itself. After being allowed to grow firm and hardy roots for a season, the grower then will graft the desired scion. The result is the same in both methods.
Companies may then post their grapevines for sale. A grower may then purchase the bud wood. He or she can then plant them knowing they are getting the plant they had asked for.
When you purchase grapevines for sale, California producers will have taken great care in providing you with the best possible product. The young vines you receive will have been carefully nurtured using scientific grafting methods. This will ensure your vines will produce the type of grapes and, as a result, wine, you are eagerly anticipating.
