1. Grapevine Micropropagation for Production of Disease-Free Vines
Berva Brock
Junior, Organizational Leadership Program
University of Wyoming, Sheridan Research and Extension Center

2. Grape Production in United States
World’s most valuable fruit crop
10 – 12th most valuable agricultural crop in US
1.2 million workers in grape & wine industry
National economic impact – $ 162 billion annually
Wine America (National Association of Wines), 2008

3. Grapevine Propagation Techniques
Cutting – Softwood and hardwood
Layering – Air, mound, serpentine
Budding (sometimes described as bud grafting)
Grafting – Softwood (green grafting), hardwood (bench, bridge, inarch-approach, exarch, cleft, whip, etc.)
In vitro culture – Micropropagation

4. Commercial Grape Propagation
Double A Vineyards, NY
6 feet between rows, 12” between cutting rows and 2” between individual cuttings. 80,000 cuttings per acre (5,00000 – 8,00000 cuttings/yr.)
Rooted cutting

5. Grapevine Propagation for the Homeowner
Growth
Flowering
Rooting
Growth, flowering and rooting in canes after 5 weeks of exposure to light

6. Limitations of Conventional Propagation
Limited availability of elite planting material
Problems with spreading insect, bacterial and viral diseases
Insect – Phylloxera
Bacteria – Agrobacterium, Pierce’s disease
Viral – Leaf roll and fan leaf viruses

7. Pierce’s Disease Infection in Grapevines
PD infected vine
Vines dead from PD
Xylem infection
Leaf symptoms
Affected shoots
Affected berries

8. Control – No cure for infected vines. Uproot and burn vines
Crown Gall Disease in Grape
Control – No cure for infected vines. Uproot and burn vines

9. Viral Diseases Leaf roll infected vineyard Fan leaf infected vineyard
Leaf roll infected vines
Fan leaf infected vineyard
Infected berries

10. Grapevine Micropropagation
Micropropagation involves using apical meristems from actively growing shoots of field grown grapevines
Shoot apical meristems are then placed onto plant growth medium with growth regulators for shoot proliferation
Resulting shoots are then rooted, hardened under high humidity and then transferred outdoors

11. Micropropagation Protocol

12. Advantages of Micropropagation
Production of bacterial and virus-free plants
Rapid propagation of elite varieties
Plants arising from tissue culture are uniform in growth, vigor, yield and quality

14. Source of Grape Germplasm

15. Grape Micropropagation Protocol
Obtain shoot tips
Shoot apical meristem
Meristem after excision
Growth of shoot apical meristem
Shoot proliferation
Shoot culture maintenance

16. Grape Micropropagation Protocol
Rooting proliferated shoots
Transfer to soil
Acclimation
Hardening
Transfer to Green House

19. Himrod Data on Shoot Proliferation 12-21-12 Start Date
Meristem after excision
Proliferation after 4 weeks
Himrod
Start Date
# of nodes in dish
Date of Data
# of shoots in 4 weeks
# of shoots
In 8
weeks 5 39
1028 33
478 29
346

20. Future Studies
Optimizing micropropagation protocols for additional 25 varieties
Study performance of tissue cultured produced plants under field conditions

21. Acknowledgements
UW College of Agriculture (Special Problems Fellowship awarded to Berva Brock)
UW Agricultural Experiment Station (SREC)
Department of Plant Sciences
Wyoming Department of Agriculture