How Are New Seedless Grapes Plants Started?
If Seedless Grapes Don’t Have Seeds, How Are New Plants Started? Farmers do not use seeds to grow seedless grapes. Instead, they grow new grapevines by planting cuttings from older plants. In winter, the grape growers cut branches from the mature vines in the vineyard.
The cuttings are planted in special nurseries. Once roots sprout, the young grapevines are dug up and replanted in the vineyard. Because they come from cuttings, new grapevines are essentially clones of the vine they were cut from.
Seedless grapes actually do contain seeds at some point. But a genetic error prevents the seeds from forming hard outer coats like normal seeds do.
At one time, seedless grapes did have seeds. Over the years, growers bred out the seeds by selecting only the grapes that had the fewest seeds to grow new plants. Finally, a seedless grape was developed.