My great grandfather was born in 1914 in Giles County, Tennessee. He was a school bus driver, carpenter, farmer, and quite the storyteller. Ever since any living member of our family can remember he has been growing grapes and making wine. He had a bit of a unique take on his wine recipes, mixing his brews with PBR, moonshine, and other alcohols to make his wines have a bit more kick.
He passed away in 2006 and took much of his wine making skills and knowledge with him. One thing that he didn't take to the grave, however, were his grapevines. While his farm has sat relatively empty for a while, his grapevines have continued to quietly grow, rooted in old ground, despite neglect and changes around them. A piece of him remaining behind.
This past December, we had the chance to go and take cuttings from those vines and are now working to root, propagate, and research more about them. We have a dozen clippings from a few different patches that we think may be different varieties. The newest they could be, would be from the 1950's, but we think they are likely even older than that. We suspect many of them will be muscadines, but my mother remembers what she calls a large white grape as well.
I coated the base of the clippings in a rooting hormone and potted them in some basic garden soil. I purchased a seeding mat to place the pots on to keep the roots warmer than the tops in hopes of encouraging root growth. We are keeping them in our laundry room with indirect sunlight and keeping the soil moist (but not too moist). In a few weeks, we will check a few to see if any root nodes have formed.
Hopefully, this spring we will have grapevines to plant, if not, it will be at least another year before the vines go back into dormancy, and we can take more cuttings and try again.
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