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We all love grapes, some more, others less. Some people are able to eat several kilograms of it at a time, while others pinch off a few berries and claim that it’s tasty, but enough is enough. No matter how anyone views alcohol, it is still present in our lives, and we also owe the appearance of the first intoxicating drink to the grapevine. Until recently, sunberries were grown in open ground only in the southern regions. But the development of science has made it possible to develop varieties suitable even for the North-West.
The famous practical gardener, author of many wonderful works on gardening, Galina Kizima, even has a book called “The Grapes Go North.” Frankly speaking, in the countries of the former Soviet Union he now feels truly comfortable only in the Crimea, Central Asia and the Caucasus. But no matter how difficult it is to grow a good harvest in other regions, many amateur gardeners annually receive up to 30 kg of berries per bush. Today the topic of our article will be a very important point of care - pruning grapes in the fall.
Why prune grapes?
A well-groomed vineyard not only produces a good harvest of healthy and tasty berries, it can decorate any area. The most important stages of vine cultivation are the formation and pruning of the bush. For beginners, this is a difficult task; knowledge lays only a theoretical foundation, but skill comes with age. And the vineyard needs to be looked after from the moment of planting, because only a healthy, properly formed bush is capable of producing a full harvest.
So why prune grapes? Isn’t it easier to let it grow as it will, relying on Mother Nature? Cultivated grape varieties have gone so far from their wild ancestors that it will be difficult for a person far from the plant world to find much in common in them. In addition, if left unattended even for several years, the vine runs wild and degenerates.
- Its health and fruiting directly depend on proper pruning of grapes.
- In neglected bushes, the shoots stretch out, weaken and bloom poorly. The berries ripen small, with a weak taste.
- Pruning grapes in the fall increases their frost resistance, which is especially important for northern regions.
- A properly cared for vine is easier to cover for the winter.
- Grapes are a plant that produces much more shoots than its root system can feed; they need to be thinned out.
- Pruning helps maintain a balance between growth and fruiting vines on grape bushes, as well as the root system and above-ground parts.
- If the plant is not pruned, the branches will intertwine and interfere with each other’s growth, and large leaves will shade the clusters, which are already weakened by a lack of nutrients.
- Unpruned grapes may simply freeze or dry out in winter, since unripe vines will not be removed.
When to prune grapes
There are supporters of both spring and autumn pruning of grape bushes, but most gardeners carry out this procedure before shelter for the winter or even combined with it. The main argument here is that with the start of sap flow, when damaged, the vine begins to “cry”, releasing cell sap that flows down in drops. At this time, the leaves are not yet formed, and the liquid pressure reaches two atmospheres.
With the appearance of greenery, part of the cell sap goes towards its formation, and the rest simply evaporates and the “crying” stops. The bad thing is that the liquid consists not only of water, it contains physiologically active substances necessary for the growth and development of the grape bush.
We will prune the vine in the fall, after the first frosts hit and the leaves fall off or simply dry out. Before this, the plastic substances contained in them simply will not have time to transform into wood. Some experienced gardeners, in general, carry out autumn pruning of grape bushes in two stages, especially if they want to take cuttings for propagation.
In the spring, after the sap begins to flow, when the buds begin to open and the cell sap does not flow out so intensely, you will need to carefully examine the vine. At this time, all the rotted and frozen buds are pruned, the grape shoots are shortened and the branches left in reserve are removed.
But this rule does not always apply. Most residents of Russia grow only cover grapes. But there are varieties that do not require shelter for the winter; they grow mainly in the south. These grape bushes need spring pruning.
Watch the video in which an experienced gardener talks about the timing of pruning grape bushes:
Grape pruning
In the first years of life, grape bushes mainly increase their green mass. Their vines actively develop, but fruiting is completely absent or only signal clusters are formed. Until the third year inclusive, we use proper pruning to give the grapes the desired shape (form a trunk), and create sleeves of the desired size. Then we simply continue to trim the bush according to the chosen pattern.
It is in the first years that the desired ratio of the root system to the above-ground part is achieved. In the future, pruning of grapes is intended to maintain the shape and maintain the crown within the boundaries of the allotted feeding area, and regulate the processes of growth and fruiting. This can only be achieved with the correct proportion of fruit vines, replacement knots, the number and length of sleeves, and the number of healthy eyes.
General rules for pruning and shaping grapes
Experienced gardeners prune a grape bush without thinking, intuitively. After all, they do this from year to year, they know perfectly well how this or that variety will behave on their site. For beginners, before moving on to the bush pruning scheme, we will give general recommendations.
- On chernozems and soils rich in organic matter with artificial irrigation, the grapes are given a powerful spreading shape.
- On depleted soils, problems with watering and dense planting, a compact bush is formed.
- The grape varieties of the eastern group are distinguished by their great growth vigor; they are subjected to gentle pruning, leaving many long sleeves. The presence of old wood helps to increase the yield of the bush.
- Varieties of the Western European group have weak growth and form a compact or medium crown.
- In covered viticulture, bushes without stems are formed to make them easier to cover for the winter.
- Uncovered varieties are most often grown on trunks.
- In the southernmost regions with hot summers, where the soil often does not even warm up, but becomes hot, it is appropriate to use high-standard molding of grape bushes.
We want to draw your special attention to the three most common mistakes that novice gardeners make. They lead to unpleasant consequences, although they are easy to avoid.
- If you prune all the annual vines on a grape bush in the fall, you won’t get a harvest. Fruiting occurs on them.
- When pruning a grape bush, be sure to leave a stump of at least 2-3 cm on top. Unlike other plants, scar tissue on this crop goes inside the branch. A short cut will simply destroy the nearest bud.
- The truism. To trim grape bushes, use a sharp, sterile tool. You are probably already tired of reading and listening to this. Believe me, it’s not for nothing that experts repeat this hackneyed phrase over and over again. You can do everything perfectly correctly and only because of a blunt, dirty tool you can ruin all your work or even destroy the vine.
Methods for pruning grapes
There are many ways to shape grape bushes. Each gardener chooses one suitable for use in his region and convenient for himself, improving and modifying it from year to year. In practice, molding grape bushes comes down to the following schemes:
- fan;
- capitate;
- cup-shaped;
- cordon;
- tent;
- umbrella
If necessary, the bush can be created one-sided or double-sided, growing it on a trunk or without a trunk.
For beginner gardeners, it is easiest to master two of the listed molds: for covering grapes - fan, for wintering - cordon. We will consider the first scheme in detail; after all, the Russian climate is conducive to growing winter-covering varieties in open ground.
Forming a grape bush with a fan
Let's see how to properly prune grapes overwintering under cover. It will be most convenient for novice gardeners to use a one-sided or double-sided fanless pattern.
First year after planting
Under favorable conditions, by the autumn of the first year of growing season, 1-2 (sometimes more, but rarely) shoots, developed and well-ripened, about a meter long and about 6 mm in diameter, ripen on the grape bushes. When pruning in autumn, only the unripe part of the vine is removed; the remaining operations on it will be carried out in the spring. This is done so that when the shoots freeze or die out in the spring, we cut off their tops to the required 2-4 eyes, and do not lose them completely. Weak vines are removed at the root of the grape bush.
Second year after planting
In the second year after spring pruning of the grape bush by 2-4 buds, each shoot produces green shoots, which by the end of the summer period ripen and give good growth. They need to be protected in every possible way, separated symmetrically in different directions and tied to a support.It is from these shoots that we will pruning form the first fruiting links of the grape bush, consisting of replacement knots and fruiting vines.
When pruning in autumn, we remove unripe tops and leaves. In the spring, after the grapes open and the sap begins to flow, we shorten the vine closest to the base of the bush by 2-3 eyes (replacement knot), and the one located at the end of the shoot - by 5-10 (fruit shoot).
Why do we sometimes leave three eyes on a replacement knot? This is sometimes done on strong grape bushes, the development of which is more than satisfactory. Subsequently, the third shoot is not removed, but a reinforced fruiting link is formed, on which two vines will produce a harvest.
Third year after planting grapes
At the age of three we begin to form sleeves. We select on each side two of the best vines located closer to the base of the grape bush (four in total). They are on a shortened shoot, which is called a replacement knot, and we remove the immature tips.
The fruit arrow is completely cut off, no matter how beautiful and powerful it may seem. Decide for yourself once and for all - do you want to grow a good harvest or preserve as many shoots as possible on the grape bush? Perhaps this year a signal harvest has already been obtained - 1-2 clusters of berries.
In the spring, you will again cut the vine closest to the base by 2-3 buds, forming a new replacement knot, and leave 5-10 buds on the fruit shoot.
In order to consolidate the knowledge gained, watch two videos, one of which talks about shaping young grape bushes:
and the second is about preliminary pruning, which allows the vines to ripen better:
Maintaining the shape of a grape bush
We told how to prune grapes in the fall in the first years of his life. In the future, the formation of the bush will proceed in a similar way, you will simply leave the strongest stepchildren from the regularly appearing ones for the formation of new skeletal branches.
In adult grapes, depending on the variety and growing conditions, there are from 2 to 6 old shoots, at the ends of which fruit links are created annually by pruning.
Single and double sided grape moldings
When we looked at pruning a bush in the form of a fan, we talked about double-sided shaping - the skeletal branches were spread in different directions. But with a small distance between the grapes (1-1.5 m), it is more convenient to direct them only in one direction.
Conclusion
You may have thought that pruning grapes is very difficult. But the road will be mastered by those who walk, start, in a few years you will be cutting shoots without thinking, and you will join the ranks of experienced winegrowers.
