To improve the yields of grapes and the taste of its elastic berries, plants need to pay attention to the arrival of cold weather. Inexperienced growers can only learn how to properly cut their own grapes for the winter, and prepare the bushes for hibernation.
Terms of pruning of grapes in autumn
Carrying out this important procedure after the end of the season can be argued by facilitating the shelter organization for the winter and accelerated healing of wounds left after trimming shoots. If we talk about when to cut grapes in autumn, then there is no specific time frame for the operation. In regions where there is no need for shelter, it is possible to focus on the fact that until the end of the leaf fall period there are about 10-15 days. So it's easier to get used, if you mean cutting grapes in autumn for beginners.
If there are severe frosts in your latitudes, then the appropriate time to cut your own grapes in the fall is at least a week before the sheltering of the bushes. Take into account that it is optimal that the selected terms of pruning of grapes, held in autumn, fall for a period when the air temperature does not drop to -3 ° C. Otherwise, the branches become extremely brittle.
Schemes of pruning grapes
There are several different systems that are successfully used by growers of this amazing plant all over the world. The stamp version is suitable for regions where there is no need for shelter. The bush has a beautiful and lush shape and requires a lot of effort and skill. Popular umbilical method consisting of a so-called sleeve, that is, a large branch, the resource of which is rapidly depleted.
The classic option, pruning grapes in autumn for beginners scheme is simple and understandable. A more productive formation is considered fan. As a matter of fact it is a bush consisting of several sleeves growing in different directions. On each arm is formed by 5-7 fruit links. Using tips on how to properly cut home grapes by this method, you can create a bush with increased fertility and resistance to diseases.
How to properly cut grapes for the winter?
A considerable age of viticulture has accumulated experience for the successful cultivation of culture. The methods of pruning grapes in the fall vary considerably depending on whether you are dealing with young or neglected.
Pruning of young grapes
Caring for a bush in the first year of life will allow to create the correct formation, which guarantees a stable harvest. Pruning young grapes in autumn for beginners involves the use of a sleeve scheme with the creation of a fruit link. For this, after the first year of growth, the shoot is shortened, leaving only two or three kidneys from the soil surface.
After the second year of these kidneys, two shoots will grow. If we talk about how to properly cut the young grapes in the fall at this stage, then there is a nuance. One of the annual shoots is shortened to two kidneys. So form a knot of substitution, which in the future will give new shoots. The second runaway, or vine fruiting, is left unchanged. From the replacement element in a year, a new bough of substitution and a fruit shoot will grow. In the future, the latter is also shortened, but to 5-10 internodes. On one sleeve it is possible to form several and more such fruit pairs. This is a fan scheme of trimming.
Pruning of old grapes
With inept handling shrubs quickly age and cease to give a normal harvest. Following the recommendations, how to trim the old grapes in the fall, you can save the plant and restore the ability to abundant fruit.
How to properly cut old grapes is as follows:
- All old branches are removed, from which shoots no longer grow.
- Cropped vines growing from the interstices of the lower branches and directed downward.
- Three healthy and powerful vines are identified. They will be the material for the formation of fruit links. The rest of the shoots are mercilessly cut out.
Pruning of grapes
The lack of proper care drastically affects the growth of the bush. There are many fine and thin branches that can not give full bunches. Regarding how to trim the neglected grapes, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that during operation it will be necessary to remove up to 75-85% of the stem.
Cropping grapes in autumn step by step includes the following actions:
- First, stepsons, underdeveloped and weak shoots, who still will not "survive" the winter, are removed. Dry branches are completely removed, this is an unnecessary ballast.
- Young shoots shorten, leaving up to 3 kidneys. Moreover, the cut is performed 2 cm above the internode so that the slice has a reverse slope.
- After that, you need to deal with perennial branches. They are easy to distinguish by a diameter of not less than 1 cm. The longer the shoot, the more the kidneys are left on it.
- The plant on the sleeves, that is, the branches, should alternate between the fruit vine and the knot of substitution. And the latter is always located below the vine fruiting.
To restore normal yield, it is not enough to know how to trim overgrown or old grapes in autumn. It is necessary to give a bush to accumulate forces for the stability of diseases. For this, in the first two years after the rejuvenating pruning, the inflorescences of the plant are cut off. So, pruning grapes in autumn for beginners can become a simple matter if you follow the above recommendations.