Oddly enough, grapes have become extremely popular among gardeners of the Urals in recent years. These wonderful berries, which are grown by hand, retain the warmth of the summer sun and its affection, even when processed into excellent home-made wine.
There is only one problem. The fact is that winters in our area are much more severe than those that France or even the northern part of Germany can boast of. And therefore, preparing grapes for winter in the Urals is an extremely responsible event, since your entire crop depends on the quality of its implementation.
So, consider the whole process in more detail. In the first days of October, it is necessary to remove all leaves, and after the first frosts, prune all fruit-bearing bushes.
This is an important part of preparation, since you need to completely get rid of old shoots that no longer bear fruit. Remember to leave substitution knots and fruit arrows. All old, diseased and dried up sleeves must be ruthlessly removed. Instead, you need to leave a young vine coming from the center of the bush.
What else involves preparing grapes for winter in the Urals? Note that pruning is especially not worth it. So, you need to leave a little more eyes than recommended for this variety. This is worth doing due to the fact that in the winter some of them will inevitably die. If in the spring it turns out that you have outlined an overabundance of eyes, then you simply delete them.
But preparing grapes for winter in the Urals is unthinkable without catharsis! To do this, dig a bush to a depth of about 15 cm, and then cleanly remove the dewy roots (surface). After that, dry sand is poured into the hole. It is even better to use for this purpose a river, previously calcined at the stake.
After that, you can start watering. It is to them, since grapes are extremely sensitive to a lack of moisture in the soil. It should be noted that autumn irrigation should be started immediately after the harvest is harvested. As a result, by the beginning of laying the inflorescences in the soil, an optimum moisture reserve will be accumulated.
Recall that on one fruiting bush you need at least a dozen buckets of clean water, and potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) must be added to it. The concentration must be selected so that the liquid becomes a soft pink color.
About the same preparation of grape seedlings is carried out. Keep in mind that if you regularly make such irrigation before winter, the yield of bushes will increase by 1/3.
It is very important to remember that before the cold you need to make top dressing. Five kilograms of compost should be put per square meter in front of the grape bush, adding a couple of glasses of ash and a gram of boric acid. If the soil is too acidic, it will be useful to conduct unscheduled liming.
When the first steady frosts come, the vines are bent to the ground, and then covered with sheets of slate (not metal!). As soon as winter comes into its own (even if there is no snow), they begin the second phase, which involves preparing grapes for winter in the Urals.
At least 20 cm of dry clean sawdust or peat is thrown on top of the slate. Above this design, fir or spruce paws are placed, which will contribute to the accumulation and retention of snow.
The preparation of grape cuttings recently planted in the soil is no different from the above procedure. Of course, they do not need such abundant watering, but they need to be covered more carefully.