Planting scheme for maiden grapes and rules for caring for a vine

Girlish grapes, planting and caring for which will require minimal effort from the owner of the site, are indispensable in landscape design. The lush beauty of the vines was appreciated by the ancient Assyrians. Long before our era, they were used to create one of the "wonders of the world" - a beautiful oasis, as if by magic, appeared on a sandy plain - the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The fruits of a girl's grape are unsuitable for food, but it has a lot of other advantages. It is unpretentious, grows quickly, hiding any building behind a luxurious living carpet of unusual palm-complex leaves. It will take 2-3 years, and this perennial vine will completely surround a high wall or a gazebo, giving coolness and pleasing the eye with luscious greenery. Even a dilapidated building entwined with it will become an original decoration of the site. A plant planted along the fence will also look spectacular.

Subtleties of generative reproduction

Maiden grapes are propagated in several ways. You can grow a liana in different ways:

• from seeds;
• using layering;
• digging root suckers;
• cutting off cuttings from the mother bush.

The generative method of culture propagation is popular with gardeners because of its simplicity and high efficiency. Its only drawback is that the vine will develop longer than when grafting or planting cuttings. But if there is nowhere to take them, it will not be difficult to get wild grapes from seeds.

Spring and autumn are suitable for sowing. Seeds are placed in open ground, after soaking them to increase germination. They need loose soil. They are sprinkled with a small (maximum 1 cm thick) layer of soil. If the sowing of maiden grape seeds is planned to be performed in the spring, they will be stratified. This procedure is not difficult. First, the planting material is dipped in cold water, where it is kept for 1-5 hours. Then the seeds are laid out on the surface of the moistened substrate, and the container with them is placed in the refrigerator. They will be ready for sowing in a month.

other methods

To propagate decorative grapes by layering, choose a long lash, on which there are many buds. Having dug a shallow (5 cm) trench, place the shoot in it. The liana cut has a wavy shape. You need to plant it, leaving part of the bends underground, and part above its surface. The shoot located in the soil is pinned. You can use a bent paperclip or wire for this. The planted grapes are watered abundantly.

Advice

A method is also practiced in which a shorter cut is taken. It is placed in a well-moistened trench and carefully covered with soil. The top of the layer should protrude 10-15 cm from the ground. A support is placed next to it so that the shoot grows correctly.

Many summer residents breed wild grape cuttings... This procedure will be equally successful in spring and autumn. The cuttings should be as thick as a pencil. The branches are cut so that each has 4-5 live buds. Then they are placed in abundantly watered soil. After planting, 2 buds should remain above the ground. With regular watering, cuttings take root quickly. If the place is sunny, at midday they will have to be sheltered from the scorching rays. Shading can be made permanent by removing it when the cuttings release a young shoot.

An adult bush of maiden grapes forms a lot of root growth. It is easy to propagate a liana with the help of such offspring. They are carefully dug up and planted in a new place. When they grow up and their root system is well developed, they are placed on a permanent site. Most often this is a site along the fence or near the walls of buildings.

Lighting and ground quality

You can plant girlish grapes anywhere. Liana grows well on the north and south side. But the color of its leaves will be different. Maiden grapes love light. If there is enough sunlight for the plant, by autumn its leaves will turn into saturated shades: orange, scarlet, crimson, purple.

When planting grapes on the north side, you should not expect such brightness from it. It will be green until it flies. In the shade, the growth of the liana slows down, and its leaves become smaller. Lack of light often negatively affects the flowering of the plant, it may not come.

Ornamental grapes are undemanding to the quality of the soil. It can grow on any type of cultivated soil, but in dry and depleted soil, the development of the vine will slow down. If the land on the site is slightly saline, this will not interfere with planting it. Experts believe that the best time to grow maiden grapes is in September and lasts until early October. But spring planting is also widely practiced.

Site preparation

Prepare a site for a vine in the country in advance - at least a week in advance. The soil is weeded and planting holes are dug with a depth of 0.5-0.6 m. Between them, 1 m of free space is left.

Advice

So that over time the girlish grapes will cover the soil with a solid carpet, the holes are made closer - at a distance of 0.6 m. In each of them, 2-4 seedlings are placed.

Add 1 bucket of compost and sand to the soil extracted from the pits.

Fertilizers are also introduced into the pit itself. Wood ash (1 L) or double superphosphate (300-400 g) can be used. Good drainage is essential for maiden grapes. The following materials are placed at the bottom of the pit:

• crushed stone;
• pebbles;
• expanded clay;
• broken brick.

Small pieces of slate or boards are placed on top of the drainage layer. A little prepared substrate is poured into the hole, a seedling is lowered onto it and, carefully spreading its roots in all directions, fill it with soil to the top. The root collar of the plant should remain at the level of the soil surface. Then an irrigation hole is made around it, the earth is abundantly moistened and mulched. It is better to use dry leaves, straw or pieces of bark for this.

There is another way to prepare the landing pit. Having placed a drainage on the bottom, sand is poured into it in a layer of 20 cm.Then the pit is filled with a mixture of three components:

• leafy land (2 parts);
• compost (2 parts);
• sand (1 part).

Planting care

Girlish grapes in the country will grow by itself, it is impossible to ruin this vine, even if you take care of it irregularly. All she needs is rare watering and pruning off excess shoots.

But if you spend a little more time caring for the plant, its lush beauty will be the best reward for the effort spent.

Water the wild grapes in moderation. During the season, 3-4 moistening is carried out, spending 10 liters of water for each liana. If the summer is hot and dry, you will have to water the plantings more often. The condition of the soil will serve as a guide here; it should not dry out completely. In the first days of June, watering is combined with top dressing. Suitable as fertilizer nitroammofoska... During the period of intensive growth, lianas add complex mineral compositions.

The plantings are cleared of weeds in a timely manner. The soil is periodically loosened. If the roots of the creeper are bare, pour the earth. It is better to mulch the trunk circles with organic matter. Its layer should be thick - about 6 cm. With the arrival of autumn, the mulch is renewed, embedding the old one in the ground. Can be used:

• peat;
• humus;
• compost.

Wild grapes do not need shelter for the winter. Most of its varieties are frost-resistant. But even if the lashes suffer from cold weather, the vine will retain its decorative effect, releasing new branches from the replacement buds. In early spring, while the maiden grapes are still dormant, carry out sanitary pruning, removing frozen shoot ends, dry, weakened, injured and too long branches.If the bushes are not formed, they quickly grow up and in breadth, displacing other crops from the site.

Maiden grapes are not affected by diseases and pests. Sometimes its young shoots lure aphids. It is practically harmless to the plant. They get rid of it by watering the lashes with a strong pressure of water from a hose or spraying them with a solution prepared from laundry soap and alcohol. If these funds do not help, the aphids will be destroyed by special preparations with an insecticidal effect. Apply them according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

Little secrets

Supports are installed for young vine bushes. Shoots can be tied up to direct their growth in the right direction. Adult vines will need reliable support. They will remain in the same place for years, so the question of what will provide it - the walls of the house, gazebos or part of the fence, must be decided in advance. The roots of maiden grapes are powerful, they can harm not only the nearby plants, but also the foundation. To prevent this from happening, the vines are planted, retreating from the wall 2-3 m. They can cling to the supports brought to the house.

If the girlish grapes in the country should hide a fence under them, it is better to place its bushes closer to each other. So they form a continuous carpet faster. But if the vine has already been planted and the distance between neighboring bushes is significant, this is also not a problem. To make the "living wall" more dense, after 1.5-2 years it will be enough to simply root the layers. And you can plant cuttings in the "voids" even earlier.

The length of the vines can be several times the height of the fence. In order for their branches to beautifully cover the fence, they are regularly pruned to form bushes. Landscape designers also offer this option: let the shoots hang freely over the fence, trail along the soil and take root outside the site. So they form an unusual wave-shaped hedge.

Girlish grapes, which are easy to grow even from seeds, will decorate any summer cottage. Its planting will effectively mask all the imperfections of the site and give the buildings a unique charm. In summer, the vertical carpets formed by its lush greenery will delight the eye, and closer to autumn they will turn yellow and crimson, blooming the garden with bright colors, giving it comfort and setting the owners in a romantic mood.

High decorativeness is not the only advantage of maiden grapes. Its vines will keep moisture on the site, protect from the scorching sun and gusty winds, become a reliable barrier to dust and noise, and get rid of dampness in the room and near the foundation. In summer, the walls of residential buildings hidden under the lianas are not afraid of overheating and rains, and from late autumn to early spring, when the leaves from the grapes fly around, they will be well ventilated.

And yet, some summer residents are wary of the plant. Its strong shoots can be devastating, clogging up gutters or climbing under shingles and slates. The uncontrolled growth of a liana can lead to the fact that it will hide the windows under it, making the house dark. But this is easy to avoid, it is enough to follow the plantings, cutting off too long and stretching lashes in time.