Principles of selection of grapes bush formations
Specificity of care for a grape bush primarily determines the formation, that is, the artificial giving to it, due to pruning, garters and debris of a certain shape.
It is impossible to apply uniformly the formation of a grape bush everywhere: in some cases, due to the lack of heat necessary for normal growth and fruiting, in others because of the danger of damage to the above-ground organs of the bush by frosts and frosts.
The centuries-old culture of grapes has created a large number of different types of shrub forms, most suitable for certain soil and climatic conditions. This is especially true of the areas of traditional viticulture.
Therefore, an amateur winegrower needs to take into account local experience when choosing the formations for a private vineyard.
It is more difficult to choose formations in new areas of amateur viticulture, where there is no local experience. Here, grape bushes should be given a form that would help to eliminate or reduce the effect of unfavorable climatic factors. In areas where grapes lack heat and should be safely sheltered for the winter, it is necessary not only to plant shrubs in a well-heated area, but also to form the crown closer to the soil surface. In this case, the reflected heat is used more fully and it is easier to cover the grape bushes for the winter.
For such conditions fan or one-sided semi-veneer formations are more suitable. For the conversation system, you can apply a large fan shape, removing from the gazebo for the winter a vine for shelter.
In the culture without sheltering bushes for the winter, a wide variety of methods of conducting and forming as with a stem( stem cordon, stamping fan, conic, decorative, etc.) can be used, and without it. As for the conditionally covered areas of viticulture and the regions of transition from cover to open culture, it is possible to use semi-open formations, mainly with a stem and a sheltered lower tier.
Besshtambovye formations in comparison with the stems are made easier and faster. In case of damage to bushes, such formations make it possible to restore the crown without reducing the yield. If necessary, they allow you to quickly increase or decrease the number of sleeves and rejuvenate them. Therefore, they can be successfully applied even with unguided culture, despite the fact that they are deprived of some of the benefits of shtambovyh formations, namely, the reduction of labor costs for care and the creation of an optimal air-light regime in the crown of the bush.
If the creation of the most common fan form during the first years of formation is not very difficult, the sham formation requires a more careful approach, when pulling out the sleeves( shoulders of the cordon), they can be created in several ways - with the help of stepchildren, from the continuation of the main shoot, from the upper eyes of the annualripe shoots.
Forming sleeves with the help of stepsons. If the grape bushes grow well and develop, the formation of the stem begins from the second year after planting. For this purpose, during the summer period, chasing shoots at the height of future boles is carried out.
At the same time or a little later( after a week) remove the unnecessary or newly appeared stepsons, except for the top two. Two stepsons( oppositely located), designed to create sleeves( shoulders), tie up as they grow along the wire in opposite directions from the main shoot - the stem. If the shoots have reached only the height of the stem, their tips are pricked to cause the development of the upper stepson.
In some cases( high-grown varieties, against the background of fertilization and watering), second-order stepsons can be used to form horns on the sleeves. To form the latter, the main stepsons( of the first order) are pricked when they reach a length exceeding half the distance between the bushes.
Forming sleeves from the continuation of the main shoot. One sleeve( the shoulder of the cordon) is created by bending the upper part of the shoot, the second( opposite) - from the developing upper stepson or from the escape of the wintering eye( below the bend).This work is carried out in summer or spring when pruning.
In the summer period, when shoots exceed the length of the future stem, the crescent bend of the upper part is made and tied to the wire horizontally. The top of the horizontal part of the shoot( the future arm of the cordon) is removed so that its length does not exceed 50-70 cm. This promotes the good development of stepsons below the bend and on the horizontal part of the main shoot. In the future, some of the developed stepchildren are removed. Left below the bend of stepson used to form the second arm of the cordon.
As it grows, it is tied to the wire, in the opposite direction from the already created sleeve. In this case, the stepchildren( the first steps are not closer than 10 cm from the bend, and the succeeding ones after 20 cm) on the horizontal part develop well and later they form horns. When the development of the stepson is weak, they are removed during pruning, and the branches are formed from shoots that develop from wintering eyes. The second arm is formed from developing shoots in the upper part of the stem( below the bend) from the side opposite to the previously withdrawn.
Forming sleeves from shoots of upper eyes. If the ripened part of the main shoot is slightly higher in height than the stem and has a normal thickness development, then in spring the shoot is cut at the level of the first wire - at the height of the created stem. Developed from the upper eyes, shoots serve to form sleeves. In the same vegetation, on the future arms of the stepchildren, branchings can be formed according to the described principle.
Its peculiarities are the formation of shrubs with a walled culture. Specific formations are applicable here - a vertical cordon, a horizontal cordon( any other formations mentioned above can also be used).
For gardening of balconies at a certain height, they raise for two or three years a tall stem, and then, at the correct height, form a cordon or sleeves.
Maximum return can be obtained in superintensive vineyards with the application of a fan-shaped shovel height of 80-100 cm, placing bushes in a row through 50 cm with a row spacing of 100-120 cm, with individual support for each bush( development of the NGO "Vinohrad").
Any formation is good if it corresponds to the soil-climatic conditions, the biology of the variety, the intended purpose.