Abstract: The moisture condition and nodes of grapevine dormant buds during the low temperature exotherm（LTE）analysis were optimized and the changes of LTE of dormant buds were investigated under storage at–4 ℃ and–8 ℃. The results show that the appropriate moisture condition of grape dormant buds was 150 μL for each cell. The plump dormant buds from the 3rd–8th node can be used as suitable material. The cold hardiness of buds was maintained up to 3 months under the storage at–4 ℃. By using optimized methods，the cold hardiness of 20 grape germplasms including 5 wild species were detected. The results reveal that the LTE of wild species was significantly lower than those of the other germplasm including the cultivars from interspecific hybrids，and the Vitis vinifera cultivars had the highest LTE. Furthermore，the cold hardiness of grape buds of the same type varied with cultivars or species.

Key words: grape, dormant bud, low temperature exotherms analysis, cold hardiness, low temperature storage