Ways To Hide Grapes For The Winter

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

How to prepare grapes for wintering

The grapes are a very important and welcome guest of our home gardens. A variety of varieties in terms of taste and ripening time allows you to have fruit bushes for every taste in the country.

But there are two problems associated with grapes: where to find and buy your favorite variety, and how to preserve the grapes in winter. The solution to the first problem in most cases depends on the integrity of the grape sellers. But the preservation of the acquired varieties in winter is already the concern of the owner of the plant.

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Many people believe that grape vines covered with a hummock of land successfully winter and do not require other intervention. But this opinion is wrong. Probably, in the long-term practice of every gardener, there were complaints about their frivolous attitude towards wintering grapes, which resulted in the loss of a fruiting bush or the variety in general. But the plant cannot be returned, and if the root is alive, then it will take two years to restore the bush.

So, everyone who wants to happily meet the swollen buds of all their favorites in the spring should know that only a healthy bush can winter well. Summer drought, lack of mineral fertilizers, untimely getting rid of diseases, overloading with fruits - all this greatly reduces the immunity of the plant. Therefore, proper care of the grape bush is the key to successful wintering.

Amateur gardeners know that there are frost-resistant varieties and the so-called "covering". This means that some grape varieties are capable of withstanding long-term frosts down to -15 ° С, and short-term ones up to -30 ° С without shelter. But such tests can only withstand mature bushes with mature wood. Before the bush becomes strong enough to withstand the winter in its bare form, it is covered in the same way as the “cover” one.

There are several ways to cover grapes. Each method has its own pros and cons. It all depends on the characteristics of the environment, on the size of the bush, on its flexibility.

The most common type of covering is covering with a bump of earth. This method is acceptable if there are no fields near the summer cottage, from where mice will come to you en masse in autumn, and if the groundwater lies deep from the surface of the earth. Such robbers as mice will not be able to destroy the bush at all. But eating all the buds will rob you of the next year's harvest. But the close groundwater in frost gives dew on the vines, and they, saturated with moisture, simply rot.

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These are the minuses, and the pluses are that this is the most reliable way of wintering grapes. The process of covering the grapes with earth is carried out in the fall, after the leaves from all the plants have flown around, in dry, calm weather. It should be noted that if you intend to use this method, then the plant must be planted in a hole so that the trunk or root collar does not burst when bent. And so that roots do not form in the folds, you need to put a plastic bottle on the root collar.

Now you need to think about the covering material. It can be pine branches, preferably dry ones, needles, large sawdust or reeds. As for the latter, it is ideal as a covering material. The reeds with the scent of their leaves scares off mice and is not subject to decay, although, at the same time, it absorbs moisture. Having decided on the covering material, we lay it on the ground next to the bush, on top we lay the vines tied in a bundle.

The vines themselves must be attached to the ground with thick wire so that they do not unbend, while lifting the hump of the earth. Then we cover the top of the vine with the same material that lies below, and on top of this heap we spread roofing material or polyethylene, pressing it along the perimeter with bricks. And already from above, all this is thrown with a layer of earth of 30-50 cm.

The second method is used to cover first-year grapes. Naturally, in most cases, grapes do not have time to fully form strong bark and buds in the first year. It is generally not recommended to bend a one-year-old - it is fraught with the breakage of young roots. Here you need a shelter like a bush house. As a rule, a one-year-old vine, forming, is cut off at a distance of no higher than 60 cm from the ground or 3-4 buds are left on it.

It is very simple to build a house for such a twig. Everyone has a bucket full of holes in their personal plot - this is where it comes in handy. Cut out the bottom of the bucket and put it in this form on the vine. Then we fill the bucket to the top with needles or large sawdust. From above, such a structure must be covered with polyethylene. If the remaining vine protrudes from the bucket, then it must be wrapped in burlap.

The vines of the bush, formed for the gazebo, are unlikely to be completely covered on the ground, and in the spring they are very difficult to spread along the trellis. Therefore, such grapes must be covered directly on the support. The best material for such a shelter is paper or burlap. If possible, the vines are collected in a bundle and wrapped with the selected material, and on top they are "bandaged" with a polypropylene bag cut into bandages. In this case, the winding should not be tight. The purpose of such a winding is to prevent icing of the vine, but at the same time it is necessary to allow it to breathe freely and receive the warmth of sunny winter days.

Covering grapes in the fall for the winter, it should be remembered that this is only half the battle. Grapes should be prepared for wintering from early spring, freeing them from winter shelters in time, until late autumn, properly caring for the plant.