Features Of Growing Grapes In The North

2023 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-07-30 21:03

Dozens of grape varieties grow and ripen on the site in Malye Kolpany

Vladimir Nikolaevich Silnov in the vineyard

The first time Vladimir Nikolaevich Silnov struck me more than ten years ago. It was then that I heard about an experienced gardener digging up young potatoes at the very beginning of June.

Yes, I am not deceiving you, dear readers. It was just that. Imagine - in our climate, when many gardeners are just planting tubers in the beds, he has already dug up young potatoes and treated them to the guests who came for his birthday. We then spoke in our magazine about his interesting experience.

Undoubtedly, this method of obtaining a very early harvest requires a lot of effort and time. Having visited now, in July, in gardening on the outskirts of Gatchina - in Malye Kolpani - on the site of Vladimir Nikolaevich, I was convinced that he has kept this tradition to this day, although he already celebrated his 65th birthday a couple of years ago.

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Young grape seedlings

However, we will talk about potatoes and other vegetables that he successfully grows on his site, a little later, in other issues of the magazine. And today we will focus on his new hobby, to which he pays a lot of attention and about which he speaks with such enthusiasm and even passion, as if he had just discovered it for himself. Although he began to cultivate this culture a long time ago, almost two decades ago. It's about grapes.

At the summer cottage of the Strong grapes, two large greenhouses are now occupied, and along them on special stands there are rows of containers with seedlings - this is for replenishing their greenhouses, as well as for selling interesting varieties to the same enthusiastic lovers. And trellis with this southerner cultivated in a wall culture - under the open sky on the southern side of the farm block stretched out in two rows.

True, here, too, Vladimir Nikolaevich's technology differs from that generally accepted by most of the North-West viticulture lovers. The grape seedlings are not planted in the ground, but in large 65-liter plastic barrels filled with fifty liters of good nutritious soil.

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"Wintering" grapes

He says that even Severodvinsk is interested in this cultivation experience. I ask: "Is it possible to grow grapes there?" Answers: “In barrels - even in the Far North. The ground is frozen there, it warms up late.

And the content of this culture in a barrel gives the plus that the roots are not in the ground, but above it. In addition, barrels can even be attached to some kind of stands. As a result, the soil in them quickly warms up, and there is an advance in the development of grapes by almost a month”.

He also solved the problem of winter shelter for such grapes. Barrels after pruning vines on a cart are brought to one place on the site. Two trenches are made there, in which they are laid obliquely in two rows so that the cut vine is turned towards each other. The barrels themselves are sprinkled with earth, and covered with slate on top so that there is ventilation and the branches are not pushed up. Then snow will fall - and the grapes will calmly overwinter.

Once he began the development of culture with the varieties Violet Augustov, Korinka Russian, Ilya Muromets. They are still held in high esteem. But now on the site of Vladimir Nikolaevich there are 74 fruiting grape varieties. He says that each tested and selected variety has its own special aroma, taste, they are different - nutmeg, raisins, wine, table …

There are among dozens of varieties and 14 varieties for growing in the open field, 16 raisins (seedless, loved by children). There are also varieties that are not frost-resistant, for example, Madeleine Selene and Malengr early, but they are early ripening and have time to ripen before the onset of cold weather. They can also be grown in barrels.

In general, Vladimir Nikolaevich believes that grapes near St. Petersburg receive a tangible stimulus for development in summer - white nights. In the south, day is equal to night, but here in summer the night is 3-4 hours. There is more light time for the growing season, and therefore the superearly varieties ripen here in July-August, and the early ones in September.

In addition, our gardeners-winegrowers do not know what grape diseases are, from which plants and gardeners in the southern regions suffer. There we have to do several treatments for the notorious mildew, and our gardeners have no idea about this disease. But he is firmly convinced: in our climate, it is worth growing only super-early or early varieties:

E. Valentinov

Photo by Vladimir Silnov and the author