How to protect grapes from the winter cold: instructions for beginners

Every gardener knows that the resistance of plants to cold weather largely depends on how they are prepared for wintering. This is especially true for such heat-loving crops as grapes.

The blog "Bright Flowerbed" explained how to properly prune and cover the vine in the fall. With these tips, you will definitely ensure a good harvest next season.

What you need to know for proper grape pruning

Basically, in the autumn months, two types of grape pruning are carried out – sanitary and aimed at increasing yields. The first one is quite easy to carry out, just remove all weak, diseased, and damaged shoots. But the second type requires certain knowledge and skills.

By nature, grapes do not invest their efforts in growing large and juicy clusters. Its goal is to grow as much as possible. The task of autumn pruning is to reorient its growth in the direction you want it to go. To do it right, let's start by defining the basic concepts.

A sleeve is a perennial well-lignified shoot, analogous to skeletal branches in trees. The basis of the fruit links are 2-year-old shoots on the sleeves. Growers form bushes in 2 or 4 sleeves. The choice depends on the degree of development and age of the bush.

The fruit link is located on the sleeve, formed by pruning, and consists of 2 parts: a fruit arrow and a replacement knot located under it.

The fruiting shoot (fruit arrow) is a long vine; after pruning, a normalized number of eyes is left on it. They will give rise to the main crop.

A replacement knot is a shortly pruned vine located under the fruit arrow. Only 3 eyes are left on it. In the next season, the knot of substitution gives 3-4 powerful shoots. From them, you will need to cut off all the fruit buds so that they grow as strong as possible. By the fall, they will become the new fruit links of the next year.

The eye is a "growth node" from which several buds begin to grow in the spring.

It is important for beginner growers to keep in mind that the main harvest is formed on 2-year-old shoots. That is why the purpose of autumn pruning is to form such shoots, make them strong, and direct all the forces of the bush to set large clusters.

How to properly prune grapes for the winter

Pruning grapes is different from pruning fruit trees. So the vine is cut off, leaving a stump 2-3 cm long above the bud. But the fruiting shoot is cut off at the internode, that is, between the buds. If the shoot remains partially green, i.e., not ripe, the green part is cut off completely.

Of course, you need to remove everything old, sick, and damaged. Also, remove shoots thinner than 0.5 cm. All stepsons must be removed from the young replacement shoots that will be ready to bear fruit in the next season. Shoots that bore fruit this year also go under the knife. You need to remove up to 80-85% of the seasonal growth if you want to have a fruitful, not an ornamental vineyard.

Before you start, make sure you work with a clean and sharp tool. Ideally, you should keep separate secateurs for the vineyard and disinfect them before each use. The time for pruning does not come until the leaves have fallen from the vine.

Pruning adult grapes

If your vines are older than 3-4 years, at the end of the season, you should leave 2-4 sleeves and up to 100 eyes on them. In the spring, no more than 10 buds should be left on one shoot of such a bush. Please also read the recommendations for your variety.

Pruning young (up to 3 years old) vines

In the first year, if the grapes were planted in spring, you need to form a bush. If the plant has produced only 1 shoot, carefully cut it into 3-4 buds. If 2 shoots have grown, shorten each to 2-3 eyes. There is also an opinion that the autumn pruning of seedlings in the first couple of years should be skipped altogether. Some people recommend pruning young grapes only in the spring, after removing the cover.

By the second fall, 3-4 strong shoots should form on the vine – these are the sleeves. Each of them should be shortened, leaving only 3-4 eyes.

In the third year, the plant forms up to 4 strong sleeves with side shoots on each of them. In the future, it is these lateral young shoots that will produce clusters. Choose the 2 best shoots on each sleeve. On the lower of these two, leave 2-3 eyes and so you will form a replacement knot. From the upper one, a fruit shoot is formed by shortening it to 7-10 eyes.

Grape care in the fall

In order for the plant to start developing healthily in the spring, it needs to be sprayed preventively. The work is carried out after the harvest and when the vine has dropped its leaves. At this time, the plant is treated with appropriate fungicides. Usually, iron sulfate is used for such spraying. It destroys all fungal diseases well and suppresses pests. For treatment, you need to prepare a 3-5% solution of the product. For young shrubs and seedlings, a 1% solution is used. Not only shoots are sprayed with the product, but also trunk circles. After treatment, the vine will gradually darken. This is normal.

Also, after harvesting, the vine needs to be properly watered and fertilized. Just before the shelter, a special water-charging irrigation is done. The best time for it is after pruning, but before the ground freezes. On light sandy soils, water is applied in an amount of about 50 liters per bush, on loams and black soils – about 25 liters. If you are going to cover the grapes for the winter in trenches, rake their sides, or make sides around the bushes so that the water does not spread.

How to properly cover grapes for the winter

For the most part, the varieties that grow in our climate are well adapted to wintering. However, young plants should definitely be protected from the cold.

You need to cover the vine when night frosts become regular and daytime temperatures stay around zero. This weather usually occurs in late October or early November. The main thing is to have time to do everything before the start of significant frosts.

Start by forming a small trench in the ground along the entire trellis of grapes. On both sides of it, arrange small earthen ramparts 10-15 cm high. These windrows will protect the vine from weathering and frost.

Remove the stems from the trellis and bend them gently, without sudden movements, to the ground. Direct the stems along the trench. Try not to damage the top layer of bark.

Secure the shoots in the trenches. To do this, you can take wooden or wire pins. There should be a small space between the vine and the ground, about 5 cm. This is necessary so that during winter thaws the vine touches the wet ground as little as possible. The plant should overwinter dry.

Stretch a wire along the bottom of the trellis, up to 30 cm from the ground. It will hold the covering material. It is very important that it does not crush the vine to the ground. Along the trellis, through this stretched wire, the vineyard is covered with a film, capturing the side earthen swaths. The sides of the film are sprinkled with earth, and pressed down so that they are not lifted by the wind. Delicate and sensitive varieties can be additionally covered with dry grass or dry fallen leaves, with a layer of up to 15 cm. Such a cover is carried out before the film is fixed.

To allow the vine to breathe in winter, the ends of the trellis should remain open. They are closed only when the temperature drops below – 15 degrees. However, when the frost subsides, the ends should be opened again. The protective film can be completely removed in early April.

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