Sweet berries, beautiful appearance and relative ease of care are qualities that make the grape a desirable crop for many gardeners to grow. The abundance of varieties allows you to choose a plant with ideal taste and other characteristics. However, in order for the harvest to meet the expectations of the gardener, it is necessary to comply with certain requirements for planting the crop and caring for it. This article will focus on grape transplantation – the basic rules of this procedure, various nuances and little tricks, thanks to which any person, whether an amateur gardener or an experienced gardener, can get a plentiful and sweet harvest.
Deadlines
Grapes can be transplanted at any time of the year, but the best period is considered to be the beginning of spring, when sap flow has not yet begun, or the end of autumn (in the period after the leaves fall and before frost), when the plant has already fallen asleep.
So, in spring, it is better to transplant grapes in the 20th of April – in the first days of May. This is due to the fact that the plant has not yet awakened from hibernation, there are no buds and leaves on it, and also because the soil is already quite warm.
The most suitable warm months for transplanting grapes are August and September.
Site Selection
It is better to choose a new place for planting grapes in a sunny area, protected from strong winds – this will help protect the bushes from damage, as well as increase the yield. Besides, the correct neighborhood with other plantings should be observed so that the plants do not suppress each other. It is also worth remembering that the grape is a perennial plant, so it is better to choose a place where the bush will grow for a long time (without the need for replanting).
Experienced gardeners do not advise planting a plant in a plot where another grape bush grew less than two years ago. If it is not possible to dig a hole in another place, then the earth in the old one should be updated, and a young seedling should be planted in the center of the hole itself using the transshipment method.
We take into account the age of the plant
Young seedlings aged 1-3 years are ideal for transplanting. Experts do not recommend replanting adult bushes older than 6 years, because due to a highly developed cutting, there is a high probability that the plant will not take root in a new place. In the event that the gardener needs to transplant such grapes, it is necessary to cut off part of the roots of the plant and leave the youngest, and then lightly treat them with a mixture of clay and potassium permanganate.
Transplant process
To transplant a grape bush to a new place, it must first be dipped in a radius of up to half a meter.
Adult bushes that are more than 5–7 years old should be carefully freed from the ground. After that, it is necessary to update the sections of the roots – remove the old ones, leaving strong roots of two to three years. Then the roots are dipped in a solution of clay and potassium permanganate (if this is not done in advance, then at this stage it is necessary to cut out the extra stems, leaving 2 sleeves with 1-2 annual vines on each). The tops of the vines should be cut to 2-3 eyes, and the cuts should be treated with wax or garden decoction. After that, the grape bush is dragged to the prepared pit (this can be done using plywood or burlap), into which a bucket of water is poured (it should be hot in spring) and clods of clay are poured onto the bottom of which, and above – fertile soil with gravel and sand .
We must not forget that grape waste can be added to the compost only in the form of ash, as well as seeds and fermented pulp.
In order for the grape bush to take root better when transplanted to another place, a little barley seeds should be poured into the ground near the roots. If iron deficiency is observed in the soil, the plant should be fertilized with iron-containing dressings in the future. The bush itself should be placed in the hole at an angle along with the sleeves, directing the roots down, and then – after filling the hole with earth and removing the annual vine above the level of the hole – water it. To make watering more convenient, a piece of some pipe should be installed along the edge of the pit.
For winter and spring, the bush, as a rule, is covered with spunbond, and for autumn – with an air-dry coating. The plant can be transplanted not only during the period when it sleeps, but this requires additional care for it. In order for the bush to recover as quickly as possible after transplantation, in the first year it is necessary to remove all the inflorescences from it, and the next – only 1/3.
One of the ways to transplant a young grape bush (from 1 to 3 years old) is transshipment – with this method, the plant is transplanted with earth on the roots into a wide and deep hole. A couple of days before such an operation, the roots are not shortened, and the plant itself is not watered.
For old bushes that are 10 to 20 years old that need to be transplanted, a method called katavlak should be used, which is a vegetative propagation method. Katavlak is carried out at the beginning of the spring season. It is necessary to dig a hole near the grape bush, then release the root system so that the heel roots are visible. After that, the vine is placed in a dug trench, and the young shoots are left on the surface. As a result of such actions, the bush begins to grow both in the old and in the new place. It should be noted that after transplantation by this method, fruiting begins in the first year. The advantages of katavlak include the possibility of transplanting an adult plant if it has grown chaotically before, as well as providing each vine with the necessary amount of sunlight.
In order to neutralize the stress received by the grape bush during transplantation, as well as speed up the process of restoring the root system, watering should be properly organized, that is, water should be delivered precisely to the heel roots of the plant. This can be done by laying a drainage layer of fine gravel inside the landing pit and placing a plastic or asbestos pipe in it at an angle, the upper part of which should rise 100-150 mm above the surface of the pit. Thanks to such a system, it is possible to implement direct root irrigation with a minimal risk of rotting of the root system. In turn, this will lead to an increase in the fruiting rate and an increase in the size of ripe berries.
After the grape bushes are transplanted, they should be watered at a frequency of once every two weeks, increasing the intervals between watering over time. This schedule is subject to change depending on weather conditions. It costs only 2-3 times in three months to fertilize transplanted bushes in the summer. In addition, to ensure air circulation near the roots, it is necessary to loosen the soil from time to time.
Compliance with the above rules regarding the time of transplanting plants, choosing a place, as well as suitable methods, will achieve high quantitative and qualitative indicators of the yield of grape bushes without any harm to them, as well as to plants that grow in the same area in the neighborhood.
