What to do with grapes in the autumn - that's the question, exciting, no doubt, every novice vintner. To understand how to care for the fall of the grapes, our advice will help.
Grapes care in the autumn
- In September, watering should be stopped. This will allow the vine to ripen faster and increase the quality of the bunches. 10-14 days before the ripening of the crop, it is necessary to remove those leaves that block the bunches from the sun's rays. But in order not to disturb the food process, more than 5 leaves can not be removed from each bunch.
- In case the harvest is not yet ripe, and the weather has already sharply deteriorated and there is a risk that all the grapes will not ripen, some of the bunches should be removed. This will get at least part of the crop.
- Pruning grapes in autumn is one of the main operations that are involved in caring for this plant. They are pruned at the end of October and beginning of November and are usually combined with shelter for the winter. Pruning grapes pursues several goals: firstly, the growth of the vine and the quality of the crop are regulated; secondly, the cropped grapes are much easier to cover for the winter. Gardener, who makes only the initial steps in viticulture, it is better to prune grapes according to the Guyot system. Only after fully mastering all the features of this formation system can one go on to other, more complex ones.
- Cropping the grapes, proceed to his shelter for the winter . The simplest and most ancient way to save a vine from freezing is to fill it with earth. The most reliable way to survive is the grapes, sheltered for the winter with the help of an "air cushion", when the plant planted on the ground is reliably protected from weather whims by planks, roofing grass and soil. Cropped grapes are tied in bundles and laid along trellises in trenches. The soil under the grapes is mulched with a thick (10-15 cm) layer of leaves or humus.
- In autumn, the grape grower has yet another important task - the processing of grapes from diseases and pests. Postponing the processing of the vineyard until the spring, the gardener risks paying for his own laziness with the harvest, because the diseases will successfully hibernate along with the safely sheltered grapes, and in the spring they will continue their devastating offensive. Grapes can be affected by a variety of viral, bacterial and fungal diseases, but most often there are mildew, gray and white rot, oidium. Avoid them will help spraying grapes in the fall with fungicides or a solution of copper sulfate. Before spraying, remove the damaged leaves and parts of the vine, which must then be burned.
- Laying the foundation for a good harvest of grapes in the next year can be done with the help of correct feeding. What to feed the grapes in the fall? In the first days of September, it is necessary to produce foliar top dressing of grapes. In its quality is introduced the water extract of superphosphate and potassium salt at the rate of 20 and 10 g / m². To this mixture, you can add one of the microelements: boron
acid (2.5 grams), manganese sulfate (2.5 grams), zinc sulphate (2 grams), ammonium molybdate (5 grams). You can make fertilizing both in dry form and in water (40 liters of water per 1 m2 of vineyard). During the autumn digging of the soil in the vineyard you can make organic fertilizers (bird droppings, manure, compost). Do this no more than once every three to four years. With the same periodicity in late autumn, before the shelter for the winter, grapes are fed with potash and phosphorus fertilizers (25 grams of potassium sulfate and superphosphate per 1 m² of vineyard). Correctly feed the grapes like this: at a distance of 50-80 cm from the bush dig a pit or trench 50 cm deep, make fertilizer and dig in it.
