How to Grow Grapes? Latest Cultivation Techniques and Methods Tutorial

Grapes are a brightly colored, delicious and nutritious fruit, deeply loved by people. The cultivation area and total output of grapes worldwide rank first among all fruit trees. Grapes are highly adaptable and are planted across vast regions of China. Cultivated grapes mainly fall into two major species: European grape and American grape. In the grape-producing regions of North China and Northwest China, “Longyan”, “Muscat Hamburg”, “Thompson Seedless” and “Niunai” all belong to European grape, with good quality and high yield, but relatively weak disease resistance and cold resistance; American grape is disease-resistant, moisture-tolerant and cold-tolerant, but its fruit quality is inferior. “Concord” is one of them, and in the United States it is mainly used for juice or for making ordinary wine.

Cultivation Environment Requirements

1. Grapes are a thermophilic plant. In early spring, germination begins when the temperature reaches 10ºC; the higher the temperature, the faster the germination. The flowering period is best at 25-30ºC. When encountering low temperatures (below 15ºC), rain and fog, or dry winds, pollination and fertilization are poor, causing a large amount of flower and fruit drop. July to September is the berry ripening period; if the temperature is insufficient, the berries color poorly, the sugar content decreases, and they may even fail to ripen fully. Whether the local area can satisfy the temperature needed for grapes to ripen fully is usually referenced by accumulated temperature. For example, the ripening accumulated temperature of “Shifeng” (the sum of the daily average temperatures accumulated day by day from the flowering period to the ripening period) is 2564ºC, and its flowering period to ripening period is 102 days.

2. Grapes have a strong demand for light. Under conditions of sufficient light, the leaves are thick and dark green, photosynthesis is strong, the plant grows robustly, many flower buds are formed, the berries have high sugar content and are sweet, and the yield is high.

3. Humidity should not be too high. If there is a lot of rainfall before flowering, the new shoots grow too vigorously and consume the plant's stored nutrients; if there is a lot of rain during the flowering period, fertilization is poor, causing flower drop; if there is a lot of rain from the berry enlargement stage to the ripening stage, light is insufficient, the sugar degree is low, coloring is poor, quality is inferior, and the fruit is prone to cracking. High temperature, abundant rain and humidity are also the main reasons for the increase in grape diseases.

Grape Cultivation Techniques

1. Transplant after raising seedlings. Cuttage, layering and grafting are commonly used methods for raising grape seedlings. Among them, cuttage is the simplest and most widely used. Some new methods of grape seedling raising in recent years are introduced below.

① Sunken-bed cuttage in small plastic bags with plastic film mulching. When carrying out cuttage in spring when the soil temperature is 10~15ºC, mix chicken manure, sawdust, river sand and vegetable garden soil in a certain proportion as the culture soil, put it into small plastic bags with a small hole at the bottom so that the culture soil is about 15 cm high, then soak grape branches with three buds per section in clean water overnight and gently insert them into the culture soil, leaving one bud at the upper end outside the plastic bag. Then bury the plastic bags in the soil, water them thoroughly, and cover them with plastic film until the seedlings are formed. Compared with open-air cuttage seedling raising, this method has the following advantages: earlier seedling formation, nearly one month earlier than open-air cuttage; high survival rate, reaching more than 95%, whereas open-air cuttage is generally only about 80%; saving labor for watering; and occupying less land.

② Green branch cuttage. In June, cut 2-3 node-long semi-lignified branches from the current year's new shoots or secondary shoots and carry out green branch cuttage. Except that the top end of the cutting retains 1 green leaf (if the leaf is relatively large, half of it may be cut off) and other nodes retain a section of petiole, the cuttage and management are the same as hard branch cuttage.

③ Water rooting promotion. In June, cut current-year vines (with one or two nodes of two-year-old vine at the lower end); insert them into a canning jar filled more than half with water, cut kraft paper or plastic film into a circle the size of the jar mouth, and cut one slit to the center, then clamp the grape vine in the slit, and seal it with adhesive tape or the like; move the jar with the inserted grape vine into a relatively warm room or kitchen. Roots emerge in about 15 days, and then it can be moved into fertile, loose soil. Generally, rooting can be promoted 2-3 times a year, about 15 days each time. One canning jar can hold 8-10 seedlings. Using shelf layers, one room can cultivate 2000-3000 jars, which can raise 16,000-20,000 seedlings.

④ Same-year cuttage seedling raising and same-year layering to propagate seedlings from seedlings. This is a new technique for increasing the grape propagation coefficient. After cuttage, strengthen fertilizer and water management to make the seedlings strong. When the seedlings grow to 50 cm, pinch the tips to strengthen the plants and promote secondary shoot growth, retaining 3-5 secondary shoots per plant. In mid-July, when the secondary shoots have grown to about 10 cm, carry out layering, pressing the main shoot 5-10 cm into the soil, with the secondary shoots growing upright above the ground. After “White Dew” and before “Autumnal Equinox”, pinch the tips of the secondary shoots again to concentrate nutrients for seedling growth. At this point, one secondary shoot has grown into a robust grape seedling. That is to say, one cutting can cultivate 3-5 grape seedlings with well-developed root systems, full branches and plump buds in the same year, and the propagation coefficient is 4-5 times higher than that of ordinary seedling raising methods.

⑤ Green branch grafting combined with layering. This method obtains a large number of own-rooted seedlings and cuttings of improved varieties in the same year. This method was successfully researched by the Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. They grafted grape green branches onto the sprouts of old grape vines cut back at the base, and by relying on the strong roots of the old vines, promoted the vigorous growth of new shoots of improved-variety scions, then in autumn carried out horizontal layering of the new shoots. After rooting, the seedlings can be lifted in the same year. In this way, one mature grape plant can provide own-rooted seedlings and cuttings in one year enough to plant 68 mu. After lifting the seedlings, retaining a small section of the improved-variety main shoot on the cut-back old vine can still provide for layering propagation the next year or for bearing fruit on the trellis.

⑥ Green branch air layering. This method is simple and easy to master. When transplanting the new seedlings, there is no need for a recovery period, greatly improving the survival rate. With careful management, they can bear fruit the next year.

The specific method is as follows: during the period of rapid growth of the current year's grape new shoots, when the stem at the 4th node from the base of the new shoot reaches semi-lignification, use 0.08 mm thick, 30 cm×30 cm polyethylene film to wrap neutral moist soil (or other fillers), and tie both ends and the middle tightly with fine string. Keep the front end of the new shoot facing upward (it may be tied to the grape trellis or mother plant with fine string). One new shoot may be wrapped at 1 node, or 2 or more nodes may be wrapped. Afterwards, use a syringe to replenish water into the wrapping bag every 7-10 days. After 1 month, when new young roots are found growing through the film bag, the wrapping bag can be cut off from the mother plant at the lower end and immediately planted in a flower pot or directly planted in the vineyard.

2. Transplant after grafting in pots. Select cuttings of grape varieties with strong adaptability, insert them in flower pots in March-April, and use them as rootstock after they germinate into seedlings. In June, graft scions of improved varieties in the flower pots. After the graft survives, cultivate 1-2 new shoots as the main vines, and pinch the tips when they grow to half a chi high. In mid-August, remove the pots and plant the grapes in the ground.

3. Direct cuttage vineyard establishment. Direct cuttage vineyard establishment is a new method of establishing a vineyard by inserting cuttings of improved grape varieties directly into the ground. In recent years, the practice of Beijing Tuanhe Farm in directly inserting more than 1000 mu using cuttings instead of seedlings has proven that this technique is a new way to achieve strong seedlings in one year, fruit in two years, high yield in three years and to solve the shortage of grape seedlings. Compared with transplanting after cuttage seedling raising, direct cuttage vineyard establishment has many advantages. First, vineyard establishment is fast and fruiting is early. It can enter full fruit period in the second year, and with careful management, the yield per mu can reach more than 1500 kg. Second, roots are not damaged and growth is vigorous. Third, it both establishes the vineyard and raises seedlings. Excess grape seedlings in the rows can be transplanted to form a vineyard or sold out of the nursery, improving returns. Calculated at 6000 plants per mu, planting seedlings would cost 180 yuan; while using the direct cuttage vineyard establishment method, about 1000 seedlings can also be sold, increasing income by 420 yuan. The specific cultivation techniques are as follows:

① Preparation before cuttage. On the basis of deep plowing in autumn and winter irrigation for soil maturation, plow the whole vineyard again at the end of March and early April of the following year, then level the bed surface, open planting trenches 1.2 m wide and 0.2 m deep at a row spacing of 2.75 m, and open planting holes in the middle of the planting trenches. The planting holes are 60 cm deep and 60 cm in diameter, or 60 cm wide and 60 cm deep. Before planting, apply 800 kg of sheep manure or cow manure and 120 kg of superphosphate per mu, mix with several times the amount of topsoil, apply evenly into the holes or trenches, and irrigate thoroughly with bottom water. Select one-year-old main shoot branches with relatively short internodes, small pith, plump and full buds, normal color, robust growth, no diseases or pests, and a thickness of 0.7-1.0 cm, cut and retain 4-6 buds, with the cut requiring a flat top and slanted bottom. Before cuttage, soak the rooting part in 50 ppm naphthaleneacetic acid for 24 hours. Disinfect by soaking in 5 degrees Beaume lime sulfur mixture for 1-2 minutes. There are 2 cuttage methods: hole cuttage and strip cuttage. For hole cuttage, 5 cuttings per hole, plant spacing 15 cm, 805 cuttings per mu; for strip cuttage, plant spacing 18-20 cm, 1300-1400 cuttings per mu. The aboveground part of the cuttings is required to expose one bud.

② Management after cuttage. In addition to formulating comprehensive cultivation technical measures, management adopts measures to promote survival, promote growth, maintain robust maturation, and prevent weed infestation, diseases and pests, drought and waterlogging, and human interference. The management after seedlings are formed is the same as that after cuttage seedling raising and transplanting.