Despite the fact that grapes seem to be a difficult crop to grow, it can be cultivated even at home. A plant planted in a pot can only perform a decorative function or additionally delight the owners of the apartment with sweet fruits.
What varieties are right?
Far from any grapes can be grown at home – only certain varieties are suitable for this purpose. It is desirable to give preference to undersized and medium-sized varieties that are early ripe, and therefore can produce a crop a couple of times a year.
As a rule, such ornamental shrubs are characterized by a neat shape and a memorable brownish tint of leaves. At the fruiting stage, the vines are covered with whitish or bluish berries.
So, on a balcony or loggia you can place varieties “Talisman”, “Laura”, “Muscat room”, “Victoria”, “Northern”, “Chaush”, “Taiga” and other representatives of the intensive type of fruiting. Recommended for beginner growers varieties “Rusbol” and “Elegy”, which tolerate any (including not too correct) pruning, and also successfully resist diseases and insects.
The necessary conditions
Optimal conditions for growing a crop provide it with protection against infections and accelerated development. At the time of the growing season, the grapes should be in an apartment or house, as it requires a temperature that does not go beyond 19–25 degrees. In winter, plantings can be rearranged to a glazed balcony, provided that the temperature in the space is maintained from 0 to 10 degrees. Culture does not like sudden temperature changes. The humidity level must be very high – at least 70%, otherwise the vines will begin to dry, and the likelihood of infection with a fungus and the appearance of a spider mite will increase rapidly. To prevent negative consequences, you should sprinkle warm water on the plantings once a week, and in winter, additionally place an air humidifier or bowls filled with liquid near the pot.
Cultivated grapes love light, as a result of which they should be grown either on the south or southwest window sill. The wild variety feels more comfortable in the shade, and a window facing north or southeast is more suitable for it. If the grower seeks to get a second crop, then in winter he will have to install fluorescent lamps at a distance of 20 centimeters from the plantings. It should be understood that the lack of lighting will not destroy the culture, but will prevent the setting of berries. However, the soil container must be protected from direct sunlight.
Initially, homemade grapes require a small pot, but with each subsequent year, the dimensions of the container will have to be increased. Seedlings will fit perfectly in ordinary plastic cups, and grown seedlings should be transferred to a container with a volume of 3-5 liters. Of course, a drainage layer must be formed in the containers, as well as holes cut to remove excess irrigation. The soil for growing crops needs nutritious, loose and breathable. It is easy to buy it in the store, but you can also make it yourself.
In the first few years, a mixture of humus soil, river sand, turf and compost, taken in a ratio of 3: 1: 3: 2, is ideal for culture. It is allowed to use a mix of peat, manure humus, sand from the riverbed, connected in the same amount. It will be possible to enrich the soil mixture with ash, superphosphate, urea, and also potassium salt. Fine-grained expanded clay, gravel, pieces of ceramics or a special filler can be used as drainage.
The soil and drainage are recommended to be pre-calcined in the oven and poured with potassium permanganate. Pots are also treated with manganese infusion or a solution based on a bucket of water and a tablespoon of copper sulfate.
Features of landing
It is customary to grow grapes in an apartment in two main ways. The first involves deepening the seeds extracted from the fruits into the ground, and the second involves the use of cuttings that require further rooting. Seeds should be quite large, brown in color and have a dense shell. The fruits from which the pits are taken must be ripe. It is important to understand that the process of growing vines from seeds takes a long time and allows you to harvest only 6-7 years after planting. As a rule, the stone fruit method is used to obtain wild grapes, which are characterized by unpretentiousness and strong immunity.
The collected bones must undergo some procedures. First of all, calibration is carried out – enumeration of seeds and elimination of all small, damaged or diseased specimens. You will also have to remove samples with specks, traces of mold or uneven coloring. Then the material is soaked for 30 minutes in warm water. Those specimens that pop up must be thrown away immediately.
Seed disinfection is carried out for half an hour, for which hydrogen peroxide or a pale pink manganese solution are used. To stimulate the growth of the bones, they should also be soaked for 8-12 hours in a stimulant – ready-made “Epin” or aloe juice. For hardening, the seeds are sent to the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks, not forgetting to clean them once a week under running water. The material will be germinated on a fragment of moistened gauze in a plate covered with cling film and put away in a heated, lit place. After planting the seeds in the ground, they will need to be sprinkled with a thin layer of soil, moistened and tightened with polyethylene. Picking grapes is carried out after the appearance of the first leaves.
The cutting method is much more convenient for use at home. Properly prepared vine fragments take root easily and delight with fruits already in the second or third year after planting. It is customary to buy twigs in the market or cut them yourself, indented from the end of the vine by 8-15 centimeters. On each cutting involved, at least a couple of live buds should be present. Both last year’s branches and samples of this year can be used. Everyone is preliminarily examined for infections, spots, wounds and other “malfunctions”.
The cut points on the mother plant must be smeared with garden pitch.
At the preparation stage, the cuttings are soaked for a couple of hours in a pinkish manganese solution. Then they are rolled in sawdust, wrapped in cling film so that the ends are outside, and put in the refrigerator. Planting grape cuttings is carried out in the spring. During storage, the sawdust should be periodically checked and, when blackened, replaced with new ones.
Rooting of seedlings is carried out in mid-spring or early May. Before that, a part of the bark is cut off from the end of each branch. If a greenish layer is found under it, then the workpiece will definitely take root. Fragments of the vine are soaked for two days, after which they must be dried. The bottom of the glass is covered with a dense layer of gauze and sprinkled with crushed activated carbon or impregnated with a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate. It is also important to pour enough liquid inside so that it only slightly covers the gauze. The stalk is placed in a filled container and closed with a half bottle or a plastic bag. As soon as its length increases by a couple of centimeters and the roots sprout, it’s time to transplant into the ground.
The nuances of care
Caring for homemade grapes is not particularly difficult.
Watering
While the growing season is underway, the culture requires irrigation 1-2 times a week with settled water at room temperature. If the summer is particularly hot, then you can increase the number of procedures. When the culture begins to bear fruit, watering is carried out less often – about once every 10 days. In winter, in a cool space, the plant is watered every two weeks, and in a heated room – just like at other times of the year.
The most convenient way to irrigate is with a watering can.
Additional fertilizing
The first application of fertilizer is carried out with the onset of spring. It should contain potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus, for example: a mixture of a kilogram of chicken manure, 20 grams of potassium salts, 25 grams of superphosphate and 9 liters of liquid. The following top dressings are carried out in the warm months, but until the fruits reach their maximum size. It is important that potassium salts and phosphorus are present in the fertilizer. The fourth top dressing is applied at the maximum dimensions of the berries – it should be a preparation saturated with potassium and phosphorus, but not containing nitrogen. The final fertilization takes place in the fall: as a rule, a complex solution without nitrogen and chlorine is used.
Shaping and pruning
The formation of the shrub is carried out in autumn or early spring. Only strong shoots should be left on each new branch. Of each pair of branches, one vine remains unchanged, while the second is cut back to 3 buds. Pruning of a long vine is carried out after the end of fruiting.
In addition, in the fall, sanitary pruning of dry, damaged and diseased branches should be arranged.
Transfer
Until the culture begins to bear fruit, the bush should be moved to a larger container every 12 months. They take it out of the container with a clod of earth, after which they shake off the top soil layer and the old drainage. After the first fruiting, the vine is transplanted every 2-3 years. To do this, the plant is removed from the container and at least a third is cleared of the ground. Damaged as well as diseased roots must be removed.
