How to properly graft grapes onto an old bush with green cuttings in spring, summer and autumn

Many experienced winegrowers consider grafting grapes the best way to improve their properties. Carrying out this procedure rejuvenates the bushes, improves the taste of the ripe crop, and even enhances protection against common pests and diseases. Before you start vaccination, you should familiarize yourself with its description and features.

Why is vaccination needed?

Some gardeners do not know why they vaccinate plants. Therefore, it is recommended to understand in advance why such a procedure is being carried out. Grafting is done to:

• Strengthen the stems. After grafting, the plant stems are strengthened by increasing their diameter.
• Adapt to new conditions. Grafted bushes quickly get used to the soil in which they grow and to weather conditions.
• Give grape seedlings certain properties. These include immunity to most insects and diseases, earlier fruit ripening, and accelerated growth.
• Form the most suitable growth form. Grafting allows gardeners to independently give the bushes one or another shape.
• Grow several different varieties of grapes at once. Thanks to this you can save space in the garden.
• Update the varieties grown. The peculiarities of the procedure make it possible to renew old or diseased grapes using grafting.

Basic rules of vaccination

Grafting is considered a complex procedure that many inexperienced winegrowers cannot cope with. If you don’t know how to do this correctly, you can damage the bushes, causing them to die.

Therefore, it is better to familiarize yourself with the basic rules of grafting in advance and figure out what you should pay attention to.

The basic rules that will help to carry out the procedure successfully include the following:

• when grafting grapes, use green to green or black to black methods;
• In order for the scion to take root well, only the most suitable grape varieties for certain climatic conditions are used;
• For grafting, a scion with resistance to pests and diseases is selected;
• the growth rate and timing of fruit ripening of the scion and rootstock should not be different;
• if grafting in a trunk is carried out in spring or late winter, then the scion will have to be harvested in early autumn;
• when carrying out the procedure in summer, use recently cut branches;
• to cut the scion, use a knife disinfected in an alcohol or manganese solution;
• when cutting cuttings, the knife blade is directed away from you so that the cut does not turn out to be concave;
• Vaccination should be done when the temperature is above 15-17 degrees Celsius.

What tools and materials are needed for grafting?

Grafting grapes begins with the selection and preliminary preparation of special tools. Choosing the right tools should be taken seriously. If they are not sharp enough, the scion or rootstock can be damaged.

To perform the procedure you will definitely need a knife. There are several types of knives that you can use:

• Garden. This tool is ideal for cutting stems and cleaning the cut area.
• Budding. It is used when carrying out budding with the help of a kidney. The features of this knife include the concave shape of its blade, which simplifies cutting the bark.
• Copying. It is considered the best knife for grafting plants using the cutting method. The copulating tool has a perfectly straight blade, with which it is possible to make straight cuts.

In addition to the knife, they use grafting pruners, which will be needed for cutting grape stems. The procedure can be carried out using the following types of pruners:

• Standard. Most often, it is used when cutting grape branches, since it does not damage their surface and makes even cuts. The distinctive features of standard models include the fact that their lower blade is slightly offset.
• Anvil.Such tools do not have blade offset and therefore it is not easy to cut thick branches. Gardeners advise using anvil pruners only for cutting dried old branches.
• With ratchet mechanism. This is a universal model that is ideal for cutting dead and young branches. Thanks to the fact that the tool is equipped with a ratchet mechanism, cutting the stems requires little effort.

Harvesting cuttings

Before grafting, preliminary preparation of cuttings is carried out. It is recommended to do this in early autumn, before the first night frosts. Cuttings taken in winter or in the second half of autumn are not suitable for scioning.

When preparing, you must adhere to the following recommendations:

• Cuttings are cut with pruning shears only from healthy bushes that bear fruit well. However, you cannot cut them from the top of the shoots, as such branches will not take root well. Therefore, part of a healthy shoot is cut off at a distance of about 30-40 cm. It is also important that the branches being cut do not have mechanical damage and are not too thin.
• To cut branches, use a sharpened pruner or knife. The length of the cut cuttings should be 10-12 cm.
• If you cut a branch unevenly, it will not take root in the future. Therefore, it is recommended to practice a little on old branches before harvesting. When pruning, make a cut 5-6 mm deep and then carefully insert the knife blade to the end of the branch so that the cut is even.
• The cut cuttings are placed in a large container filled with copper sulfate. This is done to disinfect the cut site.

Vaccination in spring

Some gardeners graft grapes in the spring. The procedure should be carried out in mid-April, when the soil warms up to 10-12 degrees.

Budding

When budding is carried out, you will have to cut off a small shield on the stem. Then a cut is made on the rootstock with the same dimensions so that the scion can be combined with the rootstock. After crossing the branches, the place where they join is carefully wrapped with adhesive tape.

Grafting into cleft

The method of grafting grapes into clefts is considered the simplest and most common among winegrowers. To carry out the procedure, you will have to select in advance the blackest and thickest branch, from which a cutting 6-7 cm long is cut. Then a cut 2-4 cm deep is made on the rootstock, to which the cut branch is applied. The junction of the branches is carefully wrapped with a tourniquet.

Grafting into a cleft on an underground trunk

A few days before grafting the grapes, the harvested stems are placed in a solution prepared from Epin. Then the trunk of the plant, to which the stems will be grafted, is dug to a depth of 15-20 cm. After this, the roots located on the surface of the soil are cut off, and a 3-5 cm long incision is made in the center of the trunk. The scion is inserted into the created cut, after which it is lubricated clay and wrapped in cloth.

Grafting with a drill

Before grafting, the drill is disinfected for half an hour in a manganese solution, after which a hole is drilled in the grape trunk. Its depth should be about 5 cm. Then a handle is inserted into the drilled hole and the joint area is thoroughly lubricated with clay.

Autumn vaccination

Grafting grapes onto an old bush is most often done in the autumn. By crossing young stems with old bushes, the level of fruiting of the plant increases, thanks to which it is possible to obtain a tasty harvest within a year. Grafting of grapes in the fall is carried out in early September, when the summer heat subsides. In this case, you will also have to monitor the minimum daily temperature.If it drops below 15 degrees, the scion will not take root.

First, the thickest stems are cut from the old bush. To do this, use a sharp pruner or saw if the branches are too large. All sections must be treated with a manganese solution to disinfect them.

After pruning the old bushes, they begin to prepare the cuttings. They are treated with a liquid to improve growth and soaked in water for 2-3 days. When more than three swollen buds appear on them, they are carefully inserted into a prepared cut on the stem of an old grape bush. Then the junction is filled with sawdust and tied with a tourniquet. Some gardeners wrap it with plastic oilcloth.

Summer vaccination

Grapes are grafted in summer using green or black cuttings. In the latter case, twigs harvested in the autumn are used. They are soaked in water in advance to speed up the swelling process of young buds.

August is perfect for grafting. Some winegrowers carry out the procedure in July. During grafting, the scion is carefully cut at an acute angle. Then a split is made in the largest stem of the rootstock, into which a grape branch is inserted. It is carefully wrapped with twine and wrapped in film.

Budding with a dormant bud

Many consider this budding method to be the most reliable, since the survival rate of plants is about 90%. To vaccinate, it is enough to prepare one grape bud. It is cut from the most mature branch, and it is cut along with a piece of wood and bark. The cut buds are wrapped in a damp cloth and soaked for 3-4 hours. Then an incision is made on the surface of the rootstock bark, into which the prepared bud is placed.

The area with the incision is carefully lubricated with plasticine, which is necessary to retain moisture.

Winter vaccination

Grafting in winter is most often used for crossing bushes more than two years old. This is done in the last week of February or in the first half of March, when frosts weaken. Some also plant young seedlings in winter, which are grown in pots. In this case, you will have to start grafting at the end of December.

They have been preparing the bushes since the fall. In October, they are dug up and trimmed so that the length of the trunk does not exceed ten centimeters. Then the dug up seedlings are sprinkled with sawdust, treated with a manganese solution and transferred to the basement. 3-4 days before the procedure, they are placed in a container with warm water for two days and grafted into the cleft.

The grafted plants stand in a room with a temperature of at least 20 degrees for about a month. During this time, you will have to ensure that new shoots do not grow on them. It will be possible to plant grape seedlings in the garden when the outside temperature is about 17 degrees Celsius.

Caring for the graft

It is necessary to properly care for the graft so that it takes root well. You should familiarize yourself in advance with the features of caring for a grafted vine so that it does not deteriorate and you do not have to re-graft. There are several rules that will help when caring for grapes:

• The scion site should be tightly wrapped with cloth or any other material. If sap leaks from the area where the branch and trunk meet, you will have to re-wrap the plant.
• Check whether the grafted branch is taking root 2-3 times a week. There are times when the stems do not grow together well and they have to be crossed again.
• For two weeks, the bush is treated with potassium permanganate or Bordeaux mixture. This is useful for protecting against diseases and stimulating fruiting.
• If the procedure was carried out in the autumn, the base of the bush is periodically covered with sawdust or straw. This shelter protects it from low temperatures.

Conclusion

Many winegrowers engage in grape grafting to cross different varieties with each other. Before doing this, you will have to familiarize yourself with the basic nuances of the procedure, the tools that will be needed to carry it out, and caring for the grafted vine.