School enrolment

In viticulture, a common facility or operation for the cultivation of grafts and rootstocks, analogous to a tree nursery. Often a grafting operation is also connected. An important basis for the cultivation or "enrolment" are light to medium soils rich in humus, which enable rapid rooting. A prerequisite is above all a sufficient supply of potassium (potassium salts) and magnesium. The plant must be at little risk of frost, warm and protected from the wind, and free from virus-transmitting nematodes (threadworms). Only vegetative propag ation can guarantee that the newly created vines have exactly the same genes and thus characteristics as the original vine. Generative propagation by sowing and raising grape seeds is therefore out of the question. The basis for the later vine are two components, namely the scion (upper part) and the rootstock (lower part). Both are raised separately and only become a plantable cutting through grafting, forcing and subsequent enrolment.

Scions (tops)

The scions are obtained from clones that have been observed for several years in officially recognised vineyards and tested for their positive viticultural characteristics (clone selection). The best of these with special requirements function as so-called mother vines or basic planting material after approval. From these, 80-centimetre-long one-year-old canes are cut. Pruning is carried out at the end of December to mid-January to prevent bud damage due to frost. The canes must have at least seven graftable eyes, in the case of some with long internodes, such as the varieties Blaufränkisch (Lemberger), Trollinger or Dornfelder, only five. Up to 50 scions can be obtained from one mother vine. Until further use, they are stored in cold storage rooms at 1 to 2 °Celsius, packed airtight in plastic films of 100 or 200 pieces, in order to preserve the...