We all love grapes, some more, others less. Someone is able to eat several kilograms of it at a time, and some will pinch off a few berries and claim that it is tasty, but enough. No matter how anyone treats alcohol, it is still present in our lives, and we also owe the appearance of the first intoxicating drink to the vine. More recently, a sunny berry in the open field was grown only in the southern regions. But the development of science has made it possible to develop varieties suitable even for the Northwest.
The famous gardener-practitioner, the author of many wonderful works on gardening, Galina Kizima, even has a book called “Grapes Go North.” Frankly speaking, in the countries of the former Soviet Union, he still feels really comfortable only in the Crimea, Central Asia and the Caucasus. But no matter how difficult it is to grow a good crop in other regions, many amateur gardeners annually receive up to 30 kg of berries from a 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 gives a good harvest of healthy and tasty berries, it is able to decorate any site. The most important stages in the cultivation of the vine are the formation and pruning of the bush. For beginners, this is a difficult task, knowledge lays only a theoretical foundation, while 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 able to give a full harvest.
So why prune grapes? Wouldn’t it be easier to let it grow as it should, relying on Mother Nature? Cultivated varieties of grapes 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, the vine left even for several years without supervision runs wild and degenerates.
- Proper pruning of grapes directly affects its health and fruiting.
- In neglected bushes, shoots stretch out, weaken and bloom poorly. Berries ripen small, with a mild taste.
- Pruning grapes in autumn increases its frost resistance, which is especially important for the northern regions.
- A properly groomed vine is easier to cover for the winter.
- Grapes – a plant that gives shoots much more than its root system can feed, they need to be thinned out.
- Pruning helps to maintain a balance between growth and fruit vines on vines, as well as the root system and the aerial part.
- If the plant is not pruned, then the branches will intertwine and interfere with each other’s growth, and large leaves will obscure the clusters, already weakened by a lack of nutrients.
- Unpruned grapes can simply freeze or rot in the winter, as the unripened vines will not be removed.
When to prune grapes
There are proponents of both spring and autumn pruning of grape bushes, but most gardeners carry out this procedure before shelter for the winter or even combine it with it. The main argument here is that with the beginning of sap flow, the vine, when damaged, begins to “cry”, releasing cell sap flowing in drops. At this time, the leaves are not yet formed, and the fluid pressure reaches two atmospheres.
With the advent of greenery, part of the cell juice goes to 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 the physiologically active substances necessary for the growth and development of the grape bush.
We will cut the vines in the fall, after the first frost hits, and the leaves fall off or simply dry out. Before that, the plastic substances contained in them simply do not have time to go 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 start of sap flow, when the buds begin to open and the cell sap does not flow so intensively, you will need to carefully examine the vine. At this time, all the aged and frozen buds are pruned, the grape shoots are shortened and the twigs left in reserve are removed.
But this rule does not always apply. Most of the inhabitants of Our Country grow only covering grapes. But there are varieties that do not require shelter for the winter; they grow mainly in the south. It is these vine bushes that need spring pruning.
Watch a video in which an experienced gardener talks about the timing of cutting grape bushes:
Grapes pruning
In the first years of life, grape bushes mainly increase their green mass. They actively develop vines, while fruiting is completely absent or only signal clusters are formed. Until the third year inclusive, with the help of proper pruning, we give the grapes the desired shape (we form a bole), we create sleeves of the desired size. Then we just continue to cut the bush according to the chosen pattern.
It is in the first years that the desired ratio of the root system with the aerial part is achieved. In the future, the pruning of grapes is designed to keep the shape and maintain the crown within the boundaries of the allotted nutritional area, to regulate the processes of growth and fruiting. This can be achieved only 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, we will give general recommendations before moving on to the pruning scheme.
- On chernozems and soils rich in organic matter with artificial irrigation, grapes are given a powerful sprawling shape.
- On depleted soils, problems with irrigation and dense planting, a compact bush is formed.
- Eastern group grape varieties are distinguished by their great 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.
- When covering viticulture, stemless bushes are formed to make it easier to cover them for the winter.
- Non-covering varieties are most often grown on boles.
- In the southernmost regions with hot summers, where the soil often does not even warm up, but heats up, it is appropriate to use high-standard molding of grape bushes.
We want to draw your special attention to three of the most common mistakes beginner gardeners make. They lead to unpleasant consequences, although it is easy to avoid them.
- If in autumn all annual vines are cut on a grape bush, you will not wait for the harvest. Fruiting occurs on them.
- When cutting a grape bush, be sure to leave a stump of at least 2-3 cm on top. Unlike other plants, tissue scarring on this crop goes inside the branch. A short cut will simply destroy the nearest bud.
- The written truth. Use a sharp, sterile instrument to prune vines. You are probably already tired of reading and listening to this. Believe me, experts do not repeat this hackneyed phrase over and over again for nothing. You can do everything perfectly right and only because of a stupid dirty tool ruin all your work or even destroy the vine.
How to prune 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, the formation of grape bushes are reduced to the following schemes:
- fan;
- capitate;
- cupped;
- border;
- tent;
- umbrella.
If necessary, the bush can be created one-sided or two-sided, growing it on a stem or without a stem.
For beginner gardeners, it is easiest to master two of the listed moldings: for covering grapes – fan, for wintering – cordon. We will consider the first scheme in detail, after all, the climate of Our Country has an open ground for growing varieties covering for the winter.
The formation of a bush of grapes with a fan
Let’s see how to properly prune grapes wintering under cover. It will be most convenient for beginner gardeners to use a one-sided or two-sided fanless stemless scheme.
First year after planting
Under favorable conditions, by the autumn of the first year of vegetation, 1-2 (sometimes more, but rarely) shoots ripen on grape bushes, developed and well-ripened, about a meter long and about 6 mm in diameter. During autumn pruning, only the unripened part of the vine is removed, the rest of the operations on it will be carried out in the spring. This is done so that when the shoots freeze or rot in the spring, we cut off their tops for the necessary 2-4 eyes, and not completely lose them. Weak vines are removed under the root of the grape bush.
Second year after planting
In the second year after the spring pruning of the grape bush for 2-4 buds, each shoot gives green offspring, ripening by the end of the summer period and giving a good increase. They need to be protected in every possible way, spread symmetrically in different directions and tied to a support. It is from these shoots that we will form the first fruit links of the grape bush by pruning, consisting of replacement knots and fruiting vines.
During autumn pruning, we remove unripened tops and leaves. In the spring, after the opening of the grapes and the beginning of sap 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 arrow).
Why do we sometimes leave three eyes on the replacement knot? This is sometimes done on strong vines, the development of which is more than satisfactory. Subsequently, the third shoot is not removed, but a reinforced fruit link is formed, on which two vines will produce a crop.
Third year after planting grapes
At the age of three, we begin to form the sleeves. We choose on each side two 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 unripened tops.
The fruit arrow is cut completely, 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 keep as many shoots on a grape bush as possible? Perhaps this year a signal crop has already been received – 1-2 berry clusters.
In the spring, you will again cut the vine closest to the base by 2-3 eyes, forming a new replacement knot, and leave 5-10 buds on the fruit arrow.
In order to consolidate the knowledge gained, watch two videos, one of which tells about the formation of young grape bushes:
and the second is about pre-pruning, which allows the vines to ripen better:
Maintaining the shape of a vine 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 that appear regularly to form 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 molding
When pruning a bush in the form of a fan was considered, we talked about two-sided molding – skeletal branches were bred 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 the walking one, start, in a few years you will cut the shoots without hesitation, and join the ranks of experienced winegrowers.