Our journey to sustainably
propagating grapevines.
Since 2012, through research and development, we’ve perfected tissue culture techniques to sustainably propagate grapevines in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada. The work is ongoing and our preliminary results are exceptionally promising!
While conducting this research, we are generating thousands of potted grapevines.
That’s why we’ve decided to start selling the potted vines to hobbyists, backyard growers and enthusiasts. The more we talk about our project with others, the more we realize how many people have always wanted to try growing grapevines for a variety of reasons, but never really knew how, where to get the good varieties, or tried and failed.
Most people, as one might expect, want to try their hand at making some wine. That’s no surprise. The most important thing is to start with clean vines that have been purposefully bred for generations to do well in our Canadian climate. Those are the varieties we are focusing on. But your success doesn’t end with purchasing the vines. There’s a lot involved with getting vines established (proper planting procedures, drainage, water and nutrient requirements, trellising, pruning, etc.). That’s where we want to help you. We don’t just want to sell you vines. We want to see you succeed. By purchasing your vines from us, you’re getting our commitment to guide you all along the way, by giving you tips and guidelines at each step. And if we don’t know the answer, we’re tapped into the wine industry and know who would have an answer for you. Successfully growing grapes to make wine doesn’t have to be complicated, hard or expensive, and it can be done in your backyard. Not only is it one of the most enjoyable ways to spend your time in any season, but it’s a real joy being able to show off your little vineyard. It will fill you with pride and add to the beauty of your property’s landscape.
Winemaking isn’t the only reason to grow grapes though… we’ve had people ask for them to grow up arbors and fences; some want to attract birds and deer to their yards; and others aren’t even after the grapes at all! They want the grape leaves for their fancy cuisine. The grapes from the varieties we’re offering this spring (2021) have been bred for winemaking, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t delicious in jams, jellies, juices, and right off the vine.
So, what is Tissue Culture?
The aseptic growth of isolated plant cells on chemically defined media under controlled conditions (read on and we’ll explain what that means).
For thousands of years, grapevines have traditionally been and still are commercially propagated by rooting dormant cuttings taken from existing vineyards in the dead of winter. The trouble is that if the mother plants from which cuttings are taken have a virus (more on this later, but for simplicity, there are eight main viruses that are commercially damaging to grapevines) then all progeny (or new vines made from those cuttings) will also have the virus. What’s more, is that viruses can be really tricky, in that they often don’t exhibit themselves right away and can go undetected for a few years. At which point, it’s too late. They’ve already been planted, potentially in and amongst hundreds of other vines, risking transmitting the virus to nearby blocks of vines. Viruses can be transmitted in several ways, like through insect vector or pruning. Not knowing a vine is infected, vineyard staff will go down the rows of vines, pruning away, vine after vine. If the pruners (cutters) are used to cut canes off of an infected vine, the next few cuts are likely to carry the virus and can infect the next vines in succession. And so it spreads through the vineyard, until finally, vineyards have to rip out dozens of vines and replant.
Since plants are totipotent, almost all of the cells that make up the plant have the potential to create a new identical plant if given the right circumstances (nutrients, hormones, humidity, sugars, light, etc. etc. etc.). It’s why you can just take a shoot off of a tomato plant, stick it in soil, and more than likely see it root and continue growing and producing tomatoes. Each cell has the blueprints (DNA) necessary to become whatever is needed to continue to grow. Traditional grapevine propagation is as simple as pruning a cane in the winter, and when subjected to warm soil and moisture, the blueprints will tell the cell that the conditions are right to start making roots. The top half of that cutting, not in warm, wet soil, will be instructed by the blueprint to start preparing to push out shoots. And in a few weeks, the cutting will have pushed out shoots and roots and will be on it’s way to becoming it’s own plant, genetically identical to the plant from which it was taken. Genetically identical is key here. The genetic code of the plant is what ultimately determines the quality of the fruit (and therefore determines what variety it is). If the genetic code were to change even by the slightest bit, the grape flavor, or sugar content, or colour, or any number of features, could be different and therefore wineries wouldn’t be able to rely on the variety to make their wines.
With tissue culture, we are able to start off with one vine that has been genetically tested for the eight main viruses (there are labs that specialize in grapevine virus testing). Once the results are back and we know the vine is “clean”, we can begin quickly multiplying that individual vine, going from 1 vine to over 1 million in less than two years! The exponential growth potential of tissue culture is truly astounding.
Our project has focused on perfecting the tissue culture propagation protocols (recipes) for the different varieties of vines that we have collected so far. The basic principle of tissue culture is no different than traditional propagation. It uses one plant to make more plants. Cloning, on a micro scale. Cloning is just a fancy word that means the genetics of the new plant are identical to the first (mother) plant. There’s no genetic modification going on here (these are not GMOs!). Most, if not all plants, are unique in that they have this amazing capability to make an entirely new plant from just one tiny little cell…this is called totipotency. Imagine, being able to pull out a strand of your own hair, or taking a piece of skin, and have the ability to clone yourself! (too bad animals aren’t totipotent…). But I digress…
Tissue culture follows the exact same reasoning as traditional propagation, or cloning, only on a very tiny (micro) scale…hence, micropropagation. Where propagation by cuttings uses footlong cuttings, tissue culture deals with individual nodes (tiny pieces of tissue, smaller than the size of a pea). Furthermore, where traditional propagation roots cuttings in soil or other similar media (perlite, sand, etc.), tissue culture multiplication happens on gel that contains all of the specific requirements a plant needs to grow, in the precise amounts they need (sugar, nutrients, etc.). To achieve this level of precision, the propagation has to be done in a sterilized lab setting (called aseptic).
So now you can better understand what we mean when we say that tissue culture is: the aseptic growth of isolated plant cells on chemically defined media under controlled conditions.
There are tons of useful references online if you want to know more about the process, and over time, we intend on populating a resource section on our website for this purpose…to help educate the general public on what it is, how it works, and why it’s important.
