Growing Seedless Grapes: A Comprehensive Guide to Cloning and Propagation
Grapes, like most fruit trees such as apples and cherries, exhibit something called hetero-zygosity. Hetero-zygosity means that the seeds produced by grapes bear very little resemblance to the genetic makeup of their parent plants. This can be rather surprising, as red wine grape seeds may produce vines that yield white grapes. Consequently, the only way to propagate grape vines is through cloning, using techniques that have been used for thousands of years.
Cloning Techniques for Grape Propagation
Cloning involves taking a cutting from an adult vine and planting it. This cutting begins to develop roots and eventually becomes an identical vine to the one it came from. This technique has been employed in France, Italy, and the Middle East for thousands of years, and it is still used today. This method, along with cutting propagation and grafting, makes it easy to produce new vine stock.
`Seeds with Hidden Seedlessness`
If you place pollen from a seedless grape onto the flowers of a seeded grape, seeds will still be produced. However, if you plant these seeds, the resulting vines will carry the hidden seedless trait and will produce seeds. In contrast, if you cross-pollinate seedless grapes with hidden seedlessness, about half of the seeds produced will grow vines that are seedless. This process is quite fascinating.
Propagation Methods for Seedless Grapes
Rather than relying on seeds, human efforts to propagate seedless grapes primarily involve grafting. New seedless grape vines are created by taking young branches from the seedless variety and grafting them onto established grape root stocks. This method ensures that the new vine is an exact clone of the original, preventing the need for cross-pollination and producing hybrids.
Technically, seedless grapes do have seeds, but they are extremely small and soft. These varieties have been developed through selective breeding programs to enhance the fruit traits desired by growers and consumers.