Forest Grapes

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Forest grape (lat. Vitis sylvestris) - shrub vine; a subspecies of Cultural Grape (Vitis vinifera) of the genus Grapes of the Grape family. Under natural conditions, it grows in forests, river valleys and rocky slopes in Central Asia, the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, the European part of Russia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Characteristics of culture

Forest grape is a perennial woody liana up to 20 m long with shoots covered with gray-brown finely grooved bark, exfoliating in adulthood. Young shoots are slightly ribbed, later angular and smooth. Leaves are green, 3-5-tylobe or almost whole, rounded-ovate, glabrous or covered with hairs, up to 10 cm long, have a wide notch at the base. In autumn, the foliage takes on a golden color, often with orange blotches or specks. The flowers are dioecious, small, yellowish-green, with a pronounced aroma, collected in paniculate inflorescences.

Fruits are spherical, black, with a bluish bloom, up to 0.8 cm in diameter, collected in clusters, the weight of which does not exceed 100 g. Fruits are sour, sometimes sweet, edible. Forest grapes bloom in May, fruits ripen in September. The subspecies is drought-resistant, cold-resistant, rarely affected by phylloxera and fungal diseases. Used in gardening, but mainly in the southern regions. It easily crosses with many varieties of cultivated grapes, as a result of selection, quite a lot of hybrids and varieties were obtained.

Application

Forest grapes are used in cooking for the preparation of spices, pickles, preserves, jellies, raisins, vinegar and wines. Berries are also used in folk medicine. They contain a large amount of organic acids (citric, malic and tartaric), dextrose, pectin and other useful substances. The seeds are rich in fatty oil; in some countries, a surrogate coffee and edible oil are prepared from them. Eating the fruit is good for constipation and other bowel problems. If combined incorrectly, it can cause stomach problems.

Growing conditions and planting

The place for forest vines should be well lit and protected from cold, piercing winds. You can take a place for vines near the fence, the wall of a house or an outbuilding located on the south side. The soils are preferably drained, loose, fertile, water and air permeable, moderately moist. Heavy, clayey, compacted, waterlogged, dry and waterlogged soils are unsuitable.

Before you start planting forest grape seedlings, you need to properly prepare the soil. Poor soils are fertilized with organic matter and minerals. Planting can be carried out both in early spring and autumn. Planting pits are prepared in advance: for spring planting - from autumn, during autumn - a couple of weeks before the intended planting. The dimensions of the planting pit are 50 * 50 cm, 10-15 cm additionally - for drainage (broken brick, pebbles, crushed stone or coarse sand).

A mound is formed on top of the drainage from a soil mixture composed of the upper fertile layer, humus and sand. The soil should be loose and fertilized, this will provide comfort for the development of the root system in the first years of life. It is advisable to add 200 g of superphosphate, 200 g of potassium salt and 40 g of ammonium nitrate to the soil mixture prepared for laying a pit. The amount of fertilizer varies depending on the fertility of the soil on the site.

Planting grape seedlings in a newly prepared hole is highly undesirable, because when the earth begins to settle, it will pull the young plant deep into the depths, which can lead to rather unpleasant consequences. Having planted a seedling, the soil in the pit is compacted, a hole for irrigation is formed and moistened abundantly. Overlaying a layer of mulch is encouraged. Do not forget about the support, without it the grapes cannot develop normally, it will be susceptible to the invasion of various pests and the defeat of dangerous diseases.

Diseases and the fight against them

One of the serious diseases that can damage forest grapes is mildew or downy mildew. It can damage all aboveground parts of plants. With untimely intervention, the foliage becomes shapeless with oily spots, which later become covered with a cobweb-like bloom. In the future, the spots acquire a brown color, then dry out and fall off.

Similar signs of the disease appear on buds, ovaries, flowers and berries. Most often, the disease is the result of improper care and high humidity of the soil and air. In the fight against pests, spraying with medicinal preparations, for example, Aksikhom, Kurzat, Hom, is effective. Processing is carried out twice before flowering (with an interval of 2 weeks). It is also not prohibited to use a 0.3% solution of copper oxychloride. It is important to remember that the disease is easier to prevent than to get rid of. By timely spraying, damage can be avoided.

Of the dangerous diseases of grapes, powdery mildew or powdery mildew should be noted. The leaves of plants affected by powdery mildew are covered with a white bloom with black dots, and the shoots are stained. The onset of the disease at the time of fruit ripening leads to cracking and the appearance of a specific odor. As a rule, the disease manifests itself in dry and hot weather or after a sharp change from drought to humidity, in many regions this occurs in July or early August. As a preventive measure, it is recommended to treat grapes with a 1% solution of colloidal sulfur at intervals of 10-12 days. Spraying is stopped 2-3 weeks before the berries are fully ripe. In the fight against powdery mildew, a 10% urea solution is effective.