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Amur grapes have recently acquired legends about their healing powers and are spreading more and more widely. A powerful wild grape vine came to the European territory of Russia in the middle of the 19th century. Breeders, noticing the frost resistance of the vine - up to -400S, started working with him.
Amur grapes are popular for several reasons.
- Almost all parts of the plant have beneficial healing properties;
- Rich in antioxidants, including resveratrol, which removes heavy metals and toxins from the body;
- Cultivated grape varieties easily take root on the rootstock of the Far Eastern vine;
- The picturesque vine has won the hearts of many landscapers because of its ability to grow quickly, react little to smoke or exhaust emissions, and create beautiful corners in industrial areas, not to mention parks and courtyards.
Description of the variety
The vine of wild Amur grapes can grow up to 20 m in length in its homeland, but in the European part of Russia it reaches more than 10 m. The leaves are large, up to 25 cm, of different shapes: entire, three-lobed, less often five-lobed, deeply cut. It blooms in July and attracts bees with its delicate aroma. Small round berries ripen in September, the weight of the bunches is 20-60 g.They taste sour, there are sweet and sour, sugar - up to 10-12%.
Most Amur grape vines are dioecious plants, but there are also bisexual ones. On male specimens of bushes, flowers on a large (10 cm long and 2 cm wide) raceme, which looks like an elegant down jacket, appear earlier. Female flowers are distinguished by a clearly defined ovary. Pollination occurs with the help of insects and wind. The total yield of one vine ranges from 1.5 to 6-10 kg.
Grape propagation
Amur grape vines become impenetrable thickets not only because of their strong growth, but also because they easily propagate by seeds and layering. Bushes grown from seeds can vary in their characteristics, which is what breeders use. Propagation by cuttings, which guarantees the purity of the Amur vine species, is slightly different from that of cultivated grapes. Lignified cuttings do not take root well. And the green ones are the opposite. The vine begins to bear fruit at 6 or 8 years of age.
Plant vegetation begins at a temperature of +50 C, in the middle zone - from the beginning or middle of May. Shoots stop growing in August. In four to five months, the vine grows stronger and, at rest, is not afraid when it is covered with snow, since its development has long ended. Amur grapes take root well at the latitude of St. Petersburg. And in a snowless winter, the root of the Far Eastern grapevine is preserved. Therefore, this grape variety serves as an excellent rootstock for other cultivated vines.
Landing Features
The wild Amur grape vine prefers acidic soils and does not tolerate the presence of lime in the soil.It develops well on drained soils if you put strongly acidic high-moor peat in the hole for the bush. It should be noted that vines of varietal plants love slightly acidic or neutral soils.
- Larger holes need to be prepared earlier;
- Up to 300 g of superphosphate and 100 g of potassium sulfate are added to them;
- Fill with compost and humus;
- Establish a strong support.
This grape variety is not planted under the house or near fruit trees due to its ability to quickly twine around any support.
If there is no pollinating vine, the berries will be without seeds, like sultanas. But this only applies to wild vines. Seedlings of different hybrid varieties bred on its basis will generally remain infertile.
Vine care
The next two years after planting, the grapes are fed with nitrogen fertilizers in the spring, complex fertilizers in the summer and potassium-phosphorus fertilizers in the fall. The vine of the Amur grape variety is moisture-loving; the annual precipitation rate in its homeland is 700 mm. Therefore, watering is the main component in caring for this plant. Under natural conditions, the grapevine is located on the edges of forests, along river banks, and on the southern slopes of mountains. When growing Amur liana at home, you need to select sunny areas.
Vigorous Amur grapes require annual formation. It is recommended to grow the vine in a tall trunk, from which perennial branches extend, and from them - sleeves that are cut off every season. Thickening should not be allowed; pruning is done along green shoots that can be rooted. If young cuttings of wild vines have taken root, they tolerate winter well.
Planting the Amur vine in shady places threatens the grapes with powdery mildew. Also I.V. Michurin selected varieties of Far Eastern grapes that are resistant to phylloxera.
Offspring of a wild vine
Now grown in Russia varieties of winter-hardy vines, created after crossing wild Amur grapes with cultivated bushes: Korinka Michurina, Northern Black, Far Eastern, Buitur, Arctic and others. Northern viticulture also uses the results of intraspecific hybridization of Far Eastern grapes: a series of varieties Amur Potapenko, Ametistovy, Neretinsky, Odin (Amur breakthrough), Triumph. The success of the work was the production of bisexual varieties. These are Amursky Potapenko 1 and Aleshkovsky grapes.
The Amur Triumph grape vine has a promising future. Early ripening of dark pink berries in clusters up to 1 kg, fast growing season, and disease resistance make it a favorite of vineyards located in harsh climates.
Another success of breeders is the development of vine varieties with light berries. White Amur grapes are a dream that came true in the Zolotoy Potapenko variety. The berries have a very good sugar content - 25%.
Viticulture in the capital region
The Amur grape vine is easily grown in the Moscow region. The winding vine grows more than 10 m. This beautiful grape in a purple-gold mantle curls like a lush blanket over trees and country houses. It is not susceptible to disease, unlike cultivated varieties of southern vines. Leaves appear in the second ten days of May, when the temperature becomes above +60 C. Blooms at the end of June, shoots stop growing in July - early August. The berries are collected from the beginning of September, without delay on the vine - they may fall off.
Not everyone wants to care for delicate southern varieties, carefully covering the bushes for the winter. And the vines, whose ancestor was the Far Eastern liana, come to the rescue. Among the non-covering varieties for the Moscow region, Agat Donskoy, Moscow White, Muscat Dalnevostochny, New Russian, Sputnik, Alfa and others are popular. But still, winegrowers mulch the soil around the bushes, because snowless, frosty winters are not uncommon in these parts.
Siberian vineyards
The Primorsky and Far Eastern fruit and berry experimental stations made this strange phrase a reality a few decades ago. Nowadays, many varieties bred using wild Amur vine material are cultivated by winegrowers in Siberia. High-yielding, with high-quality berries, serpentine fruit vines of the varieties Amursky 1, Cheryomushka Sibirskaya, Black Seedless Winter Hardy, Taezhny, Vaskovsky No. 5, Bely Superranniy, Kozlovsky and many others are distributed in Siberian gardens.
Watch a video about growing grapes in Siberia
Please write to me if anyone can do this.
I really want Amur grapes for my plot. They say it is very winter-hardy. If anyone has any surplus please share. Yes, and I would like a lot more. Good people))) are something we don’t have in Khakassia.