The grape harvest was over, and it was time to think about preparing the vine for wintering. There is nothing particularly complicated in these actions. The only question you can think about if you don’t know: “How to spray grapes in autumn?” But first things first.
And in the fall you need watering
The importance of autumn watering of grapes is not everyone realizes. However, such irrigation is favorable for the accumulation of moisture in the soil for the new growing season. This topic is even more relevant in the dry autumn. Cracked and porous from a lack of moisture, the earth passes frosty air to the roots of the plant, which leads to damage or even death.
Therefore, the preparation of grapes for winter includes mandatory water-recharge irrigation, unless, of course, the autumn was not marked by heavy rain. In this case, it will be superfluous.
Most effective irrigation of grapes is carried out on the grooves, previously dug around or along the bushes. Otherwise, the water will scatter in all directions. And the roots won’t get anything. It is advisable to carry out water recharge irrigation in October using a significant amount of water.
Loosening
Not only preservation of moisture helps a procedure such as loosening the soil. It also facilitates the saturation of the soil with oxygen. After all, if you periodically destroy the crust, which is constantly formed on the ground, the air penetrates to the roots of the plant much better and faster. And this is also an essential condition, which includes the preparation of grapes for winter.
In addition, loosening helps to more effectively deal with weeds. Not to mention the fact that after it, the earth absorbs water very well when it rains or the plants are watered.
An alternative to loosening can be mulching, some gardeners prefer it. Mulch also prevents the formation of crust on the soil.
Disease control
After the last berries have been removed from the bushes, a thorough inspection of the vine and foliage is necessary for their infection with pests. Autumn processing of grapes from diseases is a guarantee that next year it will bear fruit well. After all, the main thing is to notice the infection in time and prevent the spread of infection.
Due to the fact that the crop is harvested, chemicals can also be used as drugs against diseases and pests. So how to spray grapes in the fall?
In case of mildew damage (yellow or dirty gray oily spots can be found on the leaves), the plant must be treated with special preparations such as Amistar, Efal, Kartotsid, Strobi and others.
Oidium is the second most common grape disease. The unpleasant smell of rotten fish is a sign of this disease. How to process grapes in this case? Spraying with colloidal sulfur is recommended (5 grams of the substance is taken for 4 liters of water). A solution of potassium permanganate is also suitable (for 10 liters of water - 5-7 grams of the drug). Fundazol, Falcon and others will also help.
Disease prevention
If no obvious diseases were found during the inspection of plants, how should the grapes be sprayed in the fall and should this be done at all?
Experienced gardeners carry out preventive treatment of grapes 4-5 times during the season. As a result, they manage to harvest good crops without knowing what diseases are. The penultimate preventive treatment is carried out shortly before the berries ripen. And when to spray grapes in the fall? This should be done after harvesting in September to avoid an autumn outbreak of disease. In this treatment, drugs from mildew (Folpan, Ridomil, Kuproksat) and from oidium (Euparen, Tilt-250, Topaz) should be used. You can also use the plantafol 5:15:45 tool to simultaneously feed the vineyard with potassium, which contributes to better ripening of the vine.
Calculation of the dosage of drugs
When spraying grapes, we found out, now we will consider the calculation of the dosage of funds. This is also a very important point that should not be ignored. Calculation of the dosage of drugs should be done, focusing on the area occupied by the vineyard, and not on the capacity of the sprayer. If the packaging of the preparation used indicates that it is enough for 10 liters of water and 2 hundred parts, then in order to treat a vineyard of 4 hundred parts with a sprayer with a capacity of 10 liters, you need to use 2 packages. You can find a description in the specialized literature, where the dosage of this product per hectare is given, and count for the area of your vineyard. Then it will be possible to use so much water that the solution is just enough for the cultivated area.
Feeding is also needed
During the fruiting period, the plants lost their strength, so it is necessary to feed them before wintering.
Organic fertilizers with wood ash are best suited for grapes. But it’s important not to overdo it. Carrying out the simplest procedure of mulching the soil with compost or manure will be enough for autumn top dressing. And this is much better than processing grapes with some special fertilizers.
True, there is an opinion that for more abundant fruiting every 3-4 years it is nevertheless necessary to enrich the soil with microelements. For example, for 1 square. m add 10 g of potassium salt and 20 g of an aqueous extract of superphosphate. You can add a few more grams to choose from: zinc sulfate, boric acid, potassium iodine, manganese sulfate.
Some gardeners advise once every 2-3 years to use potash and phosphorus fertilizers based on 25 g of potassium sulfate and superphosphate per 1 square meter. Root dressing is best done in late autumn.
Grape pruning in the fall
When the last foliage from the vineyard falls, after two weeks you can start pruning the bushes. This should not be done before because of the threat to prevent the completion of photosynthesis, due to which nutrients accumulate in all parts of the plant. Tightening is fraught with the onset of frost, when it is too late to decide on how to process grapes for the winter or how to cut it correctly?
Pruning primarily involves the removal of diseased and old shoots. Only after this, you can begin to examine healthy sprouts, they should also be thinned out. However, we must not forget that not all grape shoots can survive the winter, so a reserve should be left. In the spring, you can return to the pruning process and already finally form the vine bushes as you wish.
We shelter grapes for the winter
If local winters do not differ in severe frosts, and grape varieties are cold-resistant, then there is no need to cover the bushes for this period. In all other cases, it is worth doing it, otherwise you can be left without a crop.
There are two ways to shelter bushes. In the first case, the vine bends to the ground level, and then takes cover. In the second - it is not removed from the trellises, shelter is made directly on them.
The material for this is used differently: both film, and sawdust with foliage, and spruce branches. The latter has significant advantages: it is well ventilated and retains snow cover. The film, on the contrary, interferes with ventilation, with warming, both humidity and the temperature underneath increase, which is fraught with the development of decay processes.
When carrying out the whole complex of measures for preparing the vines for winter, including the correct approach to the question of how to spray grapes in the fall, one can be quite sure that a good crop will be grown in the new season.