Grafting

Since grapes are a perennial plant that grows not very quickly, with the appearance of new improved varieties in viticulture, a procedure like grafting is very often carried out, but not everyone knows why, when and how to properly plant grapes.

Goals of grafting:

• replacement of the variety;
• acceleration of restoration of bushes after damage;
• reproduction;
• protection against pests .

Types (methods) of grafting grapes

Most often, the vaccination is carried out on the old bush of the grapes (as a rootstock) with a green cut (as a scion). This grafting is usually called green (because of the material used in the process). There are other variants of grafting: use green cuttings in quality and graft, and stock, or vice versa - but they are less effective.

Green grafting can be done in several ways:

• drilling - when in the cropped to 5-7 cm rootstock is inserted horizontally the graft;
• in the cleavage - when the smoothly cut down rootstock is split in the center and 1 or 2 cuttings are inserted into it;
• rapprochement - when the green shoots not separated from the mother bushes are connected with cut off places and firmly connected;
• osculation - when only one kidney is inserted in the notch on the rootstock as a scion;
• copulating - when a green stem is grafted onto a green shoot by double-cutting and then joining them.

Also, depending on the place where the vaccine is produced, it is allocated underground and ground.

A vaccination of any kind is best performed in cloudy weather or early in the morning, choosing for the procedure only healthy and well-preserved cuttings after winter.

When are grapes vaccinated?

To vaccinate grapes almost throughout the year, only in different seasons are used different methods of grafting.

1. Grafting of grapes in spring: copulating, drilling and splitting, as shoots grow well in conditions of high humidity before the movements of juices through the plant begin. It is better to spend in March or already in the end of April - the beginning of May.
2. Grafting of grapes in summer: oculization, as during this period all life processes proceed very intensively and the graft and the root well coalesce. But you can use shoots at least 6 mm in diameter. It is recommended to spend between the beginning of June and the middle of August.
3. The grapes are not usually grafted in autumn, it is better to use this season to prepare green cuttings for graft. In the autumn, only an underground vaccination can be performed in the root stem, as it will be protected from freezing by a layer of earth.
4. Winter (table grafting) of grapes: it can be carried out throughout the winter, but so that the seedling and the grafting can merge before the warm weather in spring, by the method of improved copulation (i.e., making the oblique cut with the tongue).

Care of grafting

Whichever way was vaccinated, then it needs some care:

1. Permanently remove all the shoots on the plant (1 time per week), until it grows well. 2. Increase the gain, so that it does not break.
2. After a month and a half of the strapping weaken, and a week later completely removed.
3. Carry out preventive treatment of the most common diseases.
4. In the beginning of autumn, remove among the grown shoots grassy, ​​so that the main vine is better ripened.
5. Before the onset of cold weather (late October - early November), vaccinations should be covered : a layer of earth or any other covering material.

With the help of vaccination, you can save time on full-fledged cultivation, repair damaged bushes or get new varieties of grapes in your garden.