Vitis vinifera Seeds | Grape Vine
LATIN NAME: Vitis vinifera
COMMON NAME: Grape Vine, Common Grape
Plant Profile
The grape vine is a woody climber of the Mediterranean and western Asia, reaching twenty metres in the wild by clinging with tendrils and scrambling over trees. It has palmate, lobed leaves, insignificant green flowers and bunches of sweet fruit in late summer. Wild vines are dioecious, with separate male and female plants, while cultivated varieties are hermaphrodite, and that difference is the result of thousands of years of selection for a plant that can set fruit on its own. The bark shreds in long strips, and old vines become gnarled and thick-trunked. Its tendrils are forked, and they coil around any support within reach, which is how a wild vine crosses a whole tree.
Science & Biotechnology
Vitis vinifera is the most studied fruit crop in the world after the apple, and its genome was the first for a fruit crop to be sequenced, in 2007. The species carries a remarkable chemical repertoire: resveratrol and other stilbenes in the skin, proanthocyanidins in the seed, and the terpenes and thiols that define wine aroma. It is also the reason for the phylloxera catastrophe of the nineteenth century, when an American root louse destroyed most of the European vineyards and grafting onto American rootstocks became the only defence. Modern breeding uses wild Vitis species for resistance, and gene editing is now being tested against powdery mildew.
Uses & Benefits
The fruit is eaten fresh, dried as raisins, pressed for juice and fermented for wine, and it is one of the most valuable crops on earth. Grape seed extract, rich in oligomeric proanthocyanidins, is a significant nutraceutical, and vine leaves are used to wrap dolmades. In the garden the vine is a productive climber for a warm wall, a pergola or a greenhouse, and it is one of the few fruit crops that can be grown in a small space with proper pruning. The prunings are also useful: they are the traditional source of cuttings and of vine charcoal for artists. Dried vine shoots are also used as a fuel and as a traditional wrapping for food in some Mediterranean kitchens.
Growing from Seed
Seed-grown vines are not the variety they came from, so sow only for breeding or curiosity. Stratify the seed at two to five degrees for eight to twelve weeks, then sow at twenty to twenty-five degrees and expect germination in three to six weeks. The seedling is variable and slow to fruit, often five years or more. If a named variety is wanted, grow it from a cutting or a grafted plant, and in most of the world insist on a rootstock that resists phylloxera. Plant in full sun with good air movement, and prune hard in winter. Keep the young vine to a single shoot for two years, then build the framework.
Our Take
A crop rather than a garden plant, and one where the seed gives you a surprise rather than a variety. Buy grafted plants if you want grapes, and sow seed only to see what comes up.
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