How to tie up grapes in the country on a trellis in spring and summer?

The cultivation of a vine includes a number of agrotechnical measures - it needs watering, fertilizing, and protection from pests. In addition, experts recommend tying up grapes. Garter vine, if done correctly, solves several problems at once. Spring and summer procedures have their own characteristics.

What does the right garter give?

If you give the vine the opportunity to grow chaotically, soon the shoots will intertwine and fill the entire surrounding space. In this case, the fruit clusters will lie on the ground, and the berries may deteriorate. The grapes will begin to curl in an unwanted direction, entwining nearby trees or buildings. During the season, the garter is carried out several times in the spring and summer.

This procedure has several important advantages:

• the bush is given the correct shape, which provides good illumination and reduces the ripening time of the crop;
• due to good ventilation of the crown, the risk of fungal infections is reduced;
• easier access to inflorescences for pollinating insects;
• easier plant care and access to it;
• in the process of growth shoots of the same size are formed.

A tied bush of grapes becomes a real decoration of the suburban area. If the tie is carried out correctly, the volume of the harvested crop increases significantly.

Materials used

You cannot use fishing line or thin metal wire to tie the vines: these materials will inevitably cause damage to the shoots and can provoke their further death. Usually, when growing grapes in the country, gardeners use improvised means - strips of soft fabric, thick wire, twine.

Wooden stakes are used for young plants. Adult bushes are tied to a trellis. Trellis supports can be made of wood or metal. Galvanized wire with a thickness of 2–2.5 mm is pulled in rows between the support posts.

If wood is used for the manufacture of trellis, it is better to give preference to hardwood (oak, alder, poplar) - then the structure will last much longer.

Timing

Garter grapes should be started in early spring, before the juices begin to move. During this period, the risk of damage to the buds and the branches themselves is minimized. The spring garter is called dry, and its characteristics depend on the age of the plant and the shape of the bush. With a long sleeve or high trunk, the branches are fixed at a right angle, as soon as the vine is freed from the winter shelter. The shoots are fixed on the two lower tiers of the trellis.

The horizontal anchoring of the fruit branches will make it possible for the young shoots to develop evenly (otherwise, only 2–3 of the uppermost branches would develop).

When fixing the vine in the spring, you need to take into account its further thickening in the process of growth and leave a small margin of free space. In this case, the branches must still be secured and not dangling.

The summer garter of grapes is called green, since at this time young vegetative shoots are fixed. As soon as the branches outgrow the next wire of the trellis, they are immediately fixed with an interval of 10-15 cm. During the work, care must be taken to ensure that the shoots do not intertwine with each other. The green garter must be stiffer for a secure fit.

Young branches are fixed in an upright position, preliminarily wrapping the wire with a garter material, and then fixing the shoot. Otherwise, the fragile fabric can get burned by the hot metal. A garter in the summer will protect the fresh growth from damage from rains and gusts of wind.

Garter methods

There are several ways to tie up a vine. Each summer resident chooses a more familiar or convenient option for him:

• A loop. The fabric strip is folded in half and applied to the wire with the middle part of the resulting segment. After that, the two free ends are threaded into the opposite loop and tightened on the wire. Then the shoot is tied with the same ends of the fabric tape.
• Eight. A piece of twine is wrapped around the wire, then the ends are crossed and they tie the vine to a knot. As a result, the garter has the shape of a figure of eight, in the rings of which the wire and the shoot are fixed.
• Reel. Next to the vine in need of fixation, the wire is wrapped with fabric tape, making 3-4 turns. After that, the shoot is fixed with the free ends, without tightening much.

All three methods can be used for both dry and green garters. The choice of support structure depends on the age of the plant.

Support for a young bush

In the first year of planting, a grape seedling gives 3-4 shoots, of which one of the strongest is chosen as the main one. A young bush is formed in June.

In the future, formative pruning is carried out every autumn. At this time, the summer growth and part of the perennial shoots are removed. In addition, fragile, diseased, damaged branches are cut off.

For most regions of Russia, experts recommend growing grapes in a standard-free form. In the first year, the seedling is tied to a small wooden peg or netted trellis. If you let the shoots run along the net, they themselves will braid it, striving upward.

Growing adult grapes on a trellis

Adult grape bushes are most conveniently grown on a trellis. Support structures can be of 2 types: one-plane and two-plane.

Single-plane trellis

A single-plane trellis is a single row of metal or wooden posts with stretched rows of wire. The principle of its structure:

• it is necessary to maintain a distance of 3-4 m between the supports;
• wire rows are fixed on supports with an interval of 40 cm;
• the lower tier of the wire should be 50 cm from the ground;
• the total height of the trellis should be such that it would be convenient for the summer resident to take care of the grapes without using an additional ladder or stand.

Before installation, the lower part of the wooden supports is soaked in a 2% solution of copper sulfate for 20-30 minutes, and then coated with liquid resin and allowed to dry. Such processing allows to extend the service life of the structure several times. For reliability, the pillars are buried 50–80 cm.

You can make the structure more durable by concreting the base or overlapping each pillar in the hole with stones that should be tamped tightly. In the upper part of the trellis, it is advisable to place a spacer that prevents the change in the position of the posts due to the load. After tensioning the wire, its end is wrapped around a metal pin driven into the ground - this will eliminate the sagging of the wire row.

Bushes containing from 2 to 6 sleeves are fixed on a single-plane trellis. The more sleeves are planned, the greater the distance should be between adjacent plants. Fruit arrows should be tied close to each other ¸ leaving no empty spaces on the wire - in this case, the shoots will be evenly distributed on the trellis.

Due to the thickened planting, the vine can be tied up crosswise. With this option, the fruiting part of the shoot will be located above the center of a neighboring bush and vice versa. On the lower tier of the wire, skeletal branches are fixed.Secondary shoots are fixed at an acute angle to the second tier. Most fruiting branches should be in a horizontal plane.

Two-plane trellis

Already from the name of the two-plane trellis it is clear that it has 2 working planes. In this case, we are talking about two single-plane trellis located in parallel at a distance of 50–70 cm or installed in the form of a v-shaped structure.

The two-plane trellis can carry more weight. You can tie a vine with 6-8 long sleeves to it. True, in this case, the cost of purchasing materials increases. In preparation for winter, the grapes will have to be removed from the wire, laid on a substrate and covered with insulating materials.

The garter scheme for a two-plane trellis is based on the same principles as the use of a one-plane structure. The difference lies in the ability of such a support to withstand a double load. Up to 6 shoots can be attached to one plane, and the same number of branches is fixed on the second plane.

A two-plane trellis requires more free space for its placement, but it allows you to use fewer seedlings to obtain the same yield.

Can I grow without a garter?

The method of growing grapes without a tie to a trellis also has a right to exist, but not all varieties are suitable. Without fixing the shoots, only low and medium-sized varieties of vines can be cultivated.

Thickening should be avoided so that the yield of the crop does not decrease and the decorative qualities are not lost. Instead of a trellis in this case, an arched metal support is installed, through which freely hanging shoots are thrown. In preparation for winter, the vine is removed from the support and laid on the ground.

Bushes when grown without trellises must be properly formed:

1. In the first year, during the autumn pruning, a main shoot about a meter long is left.
2. In the second year, 2 processes are launched from the top, forming a replacement knot with two buds from the branch located below.
3. In the third year, the pruning scheme is repeated, thus adding another fruiting link.

To improve the decorative qualities, reduce the risk of diseases and increase the yield indicator, it is still desirable to grow grapes using trellis. Beginners should carefully study in advance the entire theoretical part concerning this agricultural technique, so as not to harm the plant and not be left without tasty and healthy berries.