I tried rooting some muscadine cuttings last year, and only had one out of around 20-30 cuttings take. In contrast, for grape vines, all I have to do is stick them in a deep pot, two nodes deep, and they root. Are the cuttings you're trying to root dormant or in an active growing phase? Lon Rombough, in his book "The Grape Grower", describes a muscadine rooting technique of taking green cuttings from a vigorous growing shoot on a vine. They are taken early, no later than bloom time. Cuttings are around 6" long with 2-3 nodes. Only the top leaf is left attached, (leafless cuttings don't root) and it is cut in half to reduce transpiration. Cuttings are dipped in a rooting hormone, planted in a mixture of three parts perlite and one part peat, in a mist bench with bottom heat. If a mist bench isn't available, they can be misted by hand several times a day. The cuttings are placed in a bright shady area- no full sun He advises against using a plastic covering, but says the cuttings can also be placed in a black one gallon pot, bottom heat, and covered with a plastic bag propped up with sticks, as long as the bag doesn't touch the leaves. If you scroll halfway down the page of the link below, you will see this described in great detail, with pictures. Our local hydroponics store sells rockwool cubes for rooting difficult cuttings, and I've had varied results with those, using other kinds of cuttings. Kiwinut's suggestion of grafting a few of the cuttings on established vines and layering the vines later is a great one. Good luck with it. Here is a link that might be useful: Green (softwood) cuttings

Linda, I cut a green (not dormant) vine about as round as a pencil, approx. 12" long with at least 3 nodes. I cut the vine with the bottom node as the bottom of the cutting. Make sure you know which is the top and the bottom of the cutting. I immediately soak the bottom node just to make it damp enough so the rooting powder sticks to it and plant it in a small pot filled with potting soil with the bottom node and wood in the soil up to the next node. I have a 14" pot that I put 5 cuttings in, Another 8" pot that I put 4 cuttings into, etc. I have pots for all varities of grapes labeled. I keep the soil moist but not soaked. I make sure the pots are in the sun long enough to keep warm but not hot. In a few weeks you will see green from the exposed nodes. Linda, this is what I do with complete success but I would suggest googling propagating from grape cuttings to find out the proper way. I'm probably doing a half dozen things wrong but it works for me. Good luck, John

Jim Kohut describes Morden 9703 (S16) - A recently introduced (and as of yet unnamed) hybrid from Eastern Europe, this is undoubtedly the hardiest green table grape you'll find. Produces absolutely enormous clusters of large green grapes that are incredible for fresh eating, especially if left to ripen on the vine into fall - these will rival any table grapes you'll find in the store! Hard to find in the trade. Marginally hardy in zone 3 - may need some winter protection." Make it Green garden center lists it, whether it is what they say it is is another matter. The front here would be Prairie Star but I was busy and the vines co mingled together...I did trim a few times but the wet summer created a lot of vigor. The clusters look good but I will have to follow the cordons back as they should not be colouring. If they are they would most likely would be the Frontenac if the clusters continue to change colour. There was no die back anywhere but this was an unusually mild winter. Probably could be described as a zone 4 rating. Frontenac on the left.

I think it's amazing this thread went on so long with no mention of St Augustine. UC Verde and all the other buffalo and prairie grasses are for full sun. Kikuyu is one of the most invasive imported pest plants short of kudzu. The others mentioned are ground covers that do not repair themselves. Dichondra will die annually from flea beetle. They wipe it out faster than you can diagnose it, but it returns from seed. Fescue, in my opinion should be formally outlawed in CA unless you live west of the 5 in San Diego and Orange counties and west of the 405 in LA. North of the 10 it can be grown on the west slopes of the coastal range, but not in the valleys. St Augustine is a real turf grass, unlike many of the alternates mentioned. It spreads to repair itself under the dog feet, is very shade tolerant, also sun tolerant, and it will crowd out other grasses when mowed at the mower's highest setting. St Aug comes as pieces of sod on a pallet. Cost is about a dollar per piece covering about 2 square feet. It spreads 10 to 15 feet per year in all directions, so if you don't cover the entire area at one time, it will take over and cover for you. St Aug takes as much water as any turf grass if you want it to remain green. If you stop watering it for more than a month, it might die completely, so it differs from other grasses in that regard. But I have revived it from beyond the grave at my my new residence in the Texas Hill Country. St Augustine is considered to be a water hog, but that is pure myth. All grasses need 1 inch of water, once a week, in the hottest heat of summer. This goes for the cool season grasses in the north and the warm season grasses in the south. In Phoenix both bermuda and St Augustine need 1 inch every 4-5 days, but in the rest of the country it only needs it once a week. This time of year in your area you should be watering 1 inch, all at once, every 2-3 weeks. The problem with fescue is it needs water 3x per week in the summer and that dries up your aquifers and lakes. Not sure why you think you have clay, but you likely don't. I don't recall any brick factories in your area, so I'm skeptical. After 12 years of moderating three lawn forums, fewer than 10 writers really had clay. Your soil might have clay like properties, but those can be fixed. Even real clay can be fixed, but you have to have a good soil test along with a good reading of the soil test before you can fix it. 9 times out of 10 people who think they have clay have no clay at all but they do have fine silt and a salt imbalance (calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium). You can't know what the problem is without the chemistry test. A secondary issue causing hard soil is allowing the soil to dry completely such that the beneficial microbes in the soil are depleted and unhealthy. That can be fixed by spraying the soil with any clear shampoo at a rate of 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Follow that with 1/2 to 1 inch of water and let it go for 3 weeks. At the same time feed the soil with an organic fertilizer like alfalfa pellets, corn meal, soybean meal, or even Milorganite. Compost and/or manure won't do the same thing as the fertilizer. The deep moisture creates a perfect environment for the microbes. The organic fertilizer feeds them. Hard soil is easy to fix. The best soil test in the US is from Logan Labs in Ohio. Yes, it's been tested against all the other labs. Get their $25 test and post the results on the Lawn Care forum and you'll get about $250 worth of free advice from people who know specifically what to apply, when, how much, how often, and where to get the stuff. If you want to see some alternate grasses in action, visit Descanso Gardens and the Huntington Library in Pasadena.