Grape clusters are drying out: causes and methods of combating. What to do if the berries on the grapes are small Why the berries on the cluster of grapes are of different sizes

To get a good harvest from a vineyard, you need to give it a decent amount of free time, because this crop loves regular care. However, it often happens that bushes that are healthy in the spring begin to take on a very sad appearance during the fruiting period - even large clusters gradually wither and dry out.

There can be many reasons why grape bunches dry out, but the most common ones include:

damage to bushes by fungal diseases;
errors in care.

Diseases that cause grapes to dry out

The most dangerous cause of grape drying out is diseases caused by fungi. The following lesions can lead to massive crop loss:

. Treat the bushes with copper-containing preparations (Quadris, Ridomil Gold). For prevention, seedlings must be placed spaciously and trimmed in a timely manner.
Anthractosis. Thrives during rainy and hot summer days. Spray the grapes with copper sulfate, and after two weeks - with Previkur or Fundazol.
Verticellosis. There is no complete cure scheme yet, but to prevent the spread of the disease, it is necessary to treat the vineyard with fungicides (copper oxychloride, Fundazol, copper sulfate) once a month, simultaneously introducing them into the soil. For prevention, you should correctly distribute the crop load, avoid waterlogging and overfeeding with nitrogen.

Errors in care

Grapes can dry out even in the absence of. Often, incorrect actions of gardeners lead to crop loss, such as:

Overfilling. Although it is not recommended to water the bushes during the ripening period, in hot and dry summers a couple of buckets of water will help avoid the reduction in the size of the berries and their subsequent drying out. The main thing is not to overdo it, especially during the rainy season, because high humidity leads to similar consequences.
No load adjustment. If the bush has formed a lot of brushes, it is necessary to remove some of them, especially for young plants. Otherwise, the grapes simply do not have enough strength to “stretch” the entire harvest and it will dry out.
Lack of support. A prerequisite for growing grapes is to create a support for the bush. If it is not there, then the ridges of the bunches may bend under the weight of the berries, and then the redistribution of nutrients and moisture throughout the bunch is disrupted, as a result of which it partially dries out.

If the bush grows on the south side of the site, exposure to direct sunlight may cause the clusters to burn. To avoid this situation, experienced gardeners do not completely remove the shoots where clusters have formed on the vine to protect them from the sun.

Video about grape diseases and their treatment

When you grow grapes, take care of them, you expect a decent harvest. And everything seems to be as usual, but it happens that the grape bunches are no longer the same, the grapes have become small.

Small berries indicate grape peas. This happens due to lack of pollination. This condition can be determined by characteristic signs - shedding of flowers and ovaries. And the second reason for small grapes is the overload of the bush, both with bunches and shoots that were not pruned in a timely manner. Many green shoots grow leaves, from which nutrients enter the berries, and with a large overload, the growth of the shoots stops, the leaves do not acquire the required amount of nutrients and the berries cannot gain their size - they remain small, about the size of a pea.

What needs to be done to prevent the grapes from being small, how to avoid peas?

Plant grape varieties that are resistant to this process, such as Arcadia and Augustine. And also during the flowering of grapes, enjoy good clear weather, since peas cannot be avoided in rainy, damp weather.

In general, varieties with a female type of flower are all prone to peas, and among the bisexual varieties, Timur, Rusbol Muscatny, Kodryanka, Muscat Letniy, Aleshenkin, Taezhny have been noticed.

If it is June, and the temperature is below 15°C, there is regular rain, dampness and fog during the flowering period of the grapes, then the pea production will be almost 100%, since the pollen is washed off by the rain during pollination and does not have time to germinate due to the dampness. But what is most interesting is that at high temperatures and drought, pollen also does not stick to the pistil. Here you will come to the rescue with a sprayer in your hand and save the situation by spraying the bushes with water.

The load of the bush also matters. You can determine the overload of a grapevine by its stepsons. Their small increase and stop in growth during flowering indicate future pea production of grapes. Stepchildren must be pinched into 2 leaves, during the flowering period, increase feeding with fertilizer, which includes boron, and during the fruiting period, unload the bush by removing non-developing green shoots. Do not touch the bunches themselves. On well-pollinated varieties, it is better to remove excess flower clusters immediately. Water regularly.

A weak bush will never produce large fruits. Due to lack of grapes on poor soil, the shoots of grapes will be thin and unable to produce a high-quality harvest. But this does not mean at all that you should strive to grow wen shoots that will burden the bush. All shoots should be approximately the same thickness.

When growing grapes, be sure to learn how to grow them. Puffs are usually used for this. The procedure is carried out early in the morning, before 9 o’clock, when the dew has dried.

So, you can avoid peas in grapes if:

pruning shoots in a timely manner, avoiding thickening of the bush;
Be sure to grow grapes in a ventilated area. Planting in a place protected from the wind (behind a tree, a fence, against the wall of a house) is the first step to pea growing grapes due to poor pollination and lack of light;
do not grow grape varieties prone to peas;
regularly water and feed, during flowering in dry, hot weather, spray with water so that the pollen sticks to the pistil;
if necessary, pollinate the grapes artificially, manually;
plant honey plants near the vineyard to attract bees or place bait (300 g of sugar per 1 liter of water, a drop of honey and some grape inflorescences per 1 liter of water. Leave for 24 hours). Pour into a plate, cover with a small layer of moss and place near the grapes in the morning. It is necessary to cover the plate, otherwise the bees will fly to the infusion and not to the vine.

Grapes are an actively growing crop and, if attention is not paid to it, the plant will spend most of its energy on the formation of young vines. For the winegrower there is only one disappointment from such growth: the berries will be small and often sour, and their quantity will be small. Therefore, summer pruning of grapes is done so that the plant does not waste energy on the formation of new shoots. As a result, instead of the growth of young shoots, the forces of the grapes will be directed to the formation of the harvest.

Pruning grapes in summer for beginners

Pruning is an important stage in grape growing.

A novice winegrower can choose only two options for summer pruning:

breaking out,
pinching young shoots.

I advise you to always pay attention to the number of fruiting arrows

if there are a large number of them, then the harvest will be large, but the berries themselves may be small and tasteless. The fruits will not have enough essential nutrients. These substances accumulate if the vine has, among other things, shoots without ovaries, but with large and well-developed leaf blades.
However, there should not be too many such shoots, the ratio should be approximately equal and it should be maintained artificially.

I’ll tell novice winegrowers a couple of secrets from myself.

Not everyone knows that a vine that has survived two winters will no longer bear fruit, therefore, it must be ruthlessly cut out.
If you decide to trim the fruitful arrows, then know that the pair of lower buds are usually empty, so do not take them into account and leave 7 or 8 buds, that is, 5-6 normal ones.

Is it possible to prune grapes in summer?

The grapes require pruning in the summer, both before and after flowering. Moreover, even if the clusters have already formed, you can still continue to remove “extra” growths.

IN June special care for grapes. I advise you to break off the young shoots and tie up the fruitful vines. This will allow each grape bush to more evenly distribute the load of empty shoots and bunches beginning to form.
Also in June the plant will begin laying replacement knots in order to form fruit-bearing shoots in their place next year.
IN July, immediately after flowering, you need to break out the stepsons and also apply fertilizer.
this is the most suitable time, as well as an excellent time for chasing young shoots; in addition, you can remove part of the upper roots, which activates the growth of the lower part of the grape root.

Is it necessary to pick off the mustache of grapes?

You can pick off the mustache of grapes every day, but I, for example, don’t do it at all and I don’t recommend it to you.
Grape tendrils do not provide any nutritional load; according to their biology, they are hooks for attaching vines.
If your vines are completely tied to the support, and the tendrils are no longer useful, then they can be removed.

Green pruning of grapes in summer

Green pruning of grapes includes performing such green operations as:

Pinching the growth of the shoot in length is immediately inhibited, and the bulk of the nutrients coming from the roots goes to future inflorescences.
Stepsoning allows you to get larger and sweeter fruits, and is also a preventive measure against fungal diseases of grapes.
At the end of summer it is worth paying attention coinage grapes: this operation will speed up the ripening of the berries, sometimes quite noticeably.
Thinning(lightening) of the fruiting zone is aimed at removing excess leaf blades that darken the bush and interfere with the flow of sunlight to the bunches. Thinning is also an excellent disease prevention.

How to pinch grapes in summer

I recommend pinching the grapes before flowering:

you need to pinch the top of the young growth with two fingers - index and thumb.
I usually split off 7-8 cm before the start of an already woody shoot.
Pinching can be repeated every 12-15 days.

Growing grapes in summer

I recommend planting after flowering, in July.

What is a stepson and how to find it?

This is a lateral shoot that grows directly from the leaf axil, usually in the main part of the shoot. If the stepsons are not removed, the grape bush will thicken greatly, the fruits will become smaller and sour. Various diseases, such as fungal diseases, often occur on thickened plants.

When removing stepsons, I advise you not to cut them down to the ground, this will not do much, the grape plant grows very actively, and if you remove the entire stepson, then in just a couple of days a new one will begin to grow in its place.

To prevent this from happening, the plant needs to be “deceived” and the stepson cut off so that a shoot approx. 1.5 cm.
Inspect the plants for the appearance of new shoots at least once a week and remove them.

Chasing grapes in summer

Embossing is the same as pinching, only the top of the shoot is removed not by 7-8 cm, but by 25-30 cm, and in some cases more, up to 40 cm.

I advise you to carry out the minting towards the end of summer, when the shoots have already grown and it is clear what to remove where.
You don't need any tools for embossing; your thumb and index finger will suffice.
If you don’t have enough strength, you can use pruning shears or scissors, but when moving from plant to plant, it is advisable to disinfect the blade so as not to spread a possible infection.

If you overdo it, the grapes will strike back - they will form a huge number of stepsons, thereby causing trouble for you, and they will spend their energy and nutrients to the detriment of the harvest.

Do not forget that the vine carries leaf mass, and leaves are a photosynthetic apparatus necessary to provide plants with energy.
If there are too few leaves, then nothing good either, for example, the harvest may take much longer to ripen.
It is better to carry out the minting in such a way that after its completion there are 15 leaf blades on each shoot. This volume of leaf mass is quite enough for the grapes to live normally.

Thinning grapes

Thinning grape bunches is necessary to lighten the bush by removing part of the leaf blades. In addition to the obvious benefit of increasing plant illumination, we also provide ventilation to the vines, and, therefore, reduce the likelihood of a fungal infection.

I do not recommend doing lightening before the brushes begin to mature.
And in general, it is better for novice winegrowers to refuse this operation, otherwise they can remove the leaves the plant needs, thereby slowing down the ripening of the grapes.
Let the lightening be carried out by professionals who understand whether there is a lot of foliage on the plant or not.

After lightening, be sure to remove the leaves from the area; do not mulch the soil with them, especially near the base of the trunk, because the leaves may also contain diseases that will spread to the vine.

How many bunches should I leave on the grapes?

The clusters on a grape bush can also be thinned out if there are a lot of them. The number of berries itself will be smaller, but due to the redistribution of nutrition, the remaining ones will be large and sweet.

It is appropriate to artificially reduce clusters on young plants that have not yet sufficiently developed the root system.
I try to leave 3 - maximum 4 bunches on a well-developed shoot if the shoot is well developed.
If the shoot is weak, then one bunch is enough.

Why can’t I grow the same bunches of grapes as those that the traders show at the market? What is their secret?

The fact is that experienced winegrowers who grow grape seedlings for sale, for advertising purposes, show specially grown so-called. marketing bunches. Choose a young, powerful bush at the age of 5-7 years with a medium-late ripening period (2nd half - end of September) of a variety that, under ordinary conditions, produces medium-dense clusters weighing 600-900 g with berries weighing 8-10 g. The bush should have enough sunlight light even in an unfavorable year for the full ripening of the bunches. It should not be shaded by trees and other bushes and grow in an open sunny place. The bush must be free from pests and diseases.

Sheltering vines for the winter

In the autumn, before frost, regardless of whether it is an ordinary variety or a complex-resistant one, the vines are removed from the arch, preparatory pruning is done, tied into a fascine and treated with steel sulfate (400 g per 10 liters of water) so that the buds do not rot under the cover. The bush is dried and tightly covered with insulating material in winter.

Around the bush, 50-60 cm from the trunk, dig a groove 35-40 cm deep (the area where the bulk of the roots are located) and put several buckets of rotted cattle or horse manure into it. There is no need to bring in bird droppings or pig manure. Until the ground freezes, the roots will grow and feed. By the beginning of the spring growing season, the smallest organisms living around the roots will perfectly prepare the manure for its absorption.

Operations that need to be carried out with a grape bush in the spring

In the spring, with the establishment of stable heat, the bush is opened, cleared of loose bark, under which pests overwinter, pruned, leaving a small number of eyes (60-70% of the norm)
We treat the bush with DNOC (100 g per 10 liters of water), which firmly kills wintering spores of fungal diseases, mites and their eggs, leaf roller pupae and other pests.
When shoots begin to grow from the eyes, the doubles and tees are immediately removed, and the bush is given a watery fertilizing with aqua substance of mullein (1:6) or chicken droppings (1:10) - 1-2 buckets per bush. If there is no mullein, use urea - 30-40 g per 10 liters of water.
When flower clusters (“porridge”) 3-4 cm long grow on the shoots, they are treated with gibberellin (10-20 mg/l of water). The goal is to grow a large comb so that a huge number of berries are formed on it. The treated “porridge” increases in size by 2.5-3 times compared to the control.
Stepchild shoots growing on the vines are certainly pinched, leaving only 2 leaves on each.
If on the shoot where the marketing bunch is grown, two flower clusters appear, then the smallest of them is removed immediately. On the bush you need to have a small number of points of growth and consumption of food.
The grapes usually bloom from June 6 to June 12. 3-4 days before the start of flowering, the bush is given abundant watery fertilizer (20 g of urea, 15 g of potassium, 50 g of phosphorus fertilizers - per 10 liters of water).

Grapes Lady fingers description

Operations that specifically affect the size and quality of the bunch

4 leaves are left above future marketing bunches, and all others are cut off. On all other shoots, be sure to pinch the tops, removing the growing points. As a result, the marketing bunch will receive inflated doses of nutrition within 10-14 days, which will increase its size and weight by 20-25%.
Now we need to grow a huge number of berries on bunches. To do this, additional pollination is done with powder puffs, twice: on the 2nd and 4th day of flowering of the bunch. This increases the number of berries in a bunch by 20-30%.
If the bush is bisexual and a lot of berries are produced, then 10 days after flowering the bunch is again treated with gibberellin (40-50 mg/l of water). This will cause 17-22% of the ovary to fall off, which will promote the growth of the remaining berries, their best ripening, the accumulation of sugars and aromatic substances, and will improve the presentation of the bunches. You can not treat with gibberellin, but cut out peas and excess berries in dense clusters using long scissors with narrow blades.
Immediately after flowering, the bush is treated with one of the fungicides to prevent fungal diseases.
12-14 days after pruning the shoot, stepchildren begin to grow from the axillary buds of the left leaves above the marketing bunch. The best of them is left for growth, the others are removed because the maximum nutrition should go into the bunch.
The upcoming care of the bush comes down to constant watering with water with fertilizers dissolved in it in small doses (5 g nitrogen, 3 g potassium, 6-10 g phosphorus - per 10 liters of water). Nitrogen fertilizers are applied at the indicated rate until the end of June. Since the beginning of July, nitrogen has been eliminated and the norms of phosphorus and potassium have been increased (5 g of potassium, 10-12 g of phosphorus).
The bushes are watered abundantly once every 10 days, soaking the root layer of the soil. It is very important that a limited number of bunches grow on the bush immediately with the future marketing bunch.
To protect against oidium, once every two weeks the bush is treated with colloidal sulfur (100 g per 10 l of water) or tilt 250 (3 mg per 10 l of water), alternating the preparations. Sulfur is used at a temperature of 20-30 degrees. At lower temperatures it is ineffective, at higher temperatures it burns the leaves.
By the time the berries begin to ripen, you need to tear off the leaves covering the bunch from the sun in 3-4 steps. At a temperature of 32 degrees, oidium spores on berries on the sunny side die (dry out).
In the first ten days of August, the growing shoots are minted, removing the tops with 4-5 leaves, because the upper leaves consume more nutrition for their own growth and development than they produce.

Every gardener, when purchasing his first grape seedling, mentally imagines a rich harvest from poured bunches of sweet berries. To make your dream come true, you need to know the basic rules of so-called “green operations”.

“Green operations” are the most important component when growing grapes; they must be carried out not only correctly, but also in a timely manner! There are different principles for carrying out these procedures, and I propose to consider my own method, tested in practice. Our main task is to provide the grape bush with plenty of sunlight, evenly distributing its vines along the trellis.

Distribution of shoots along the trellis

The first stage of the “green operation” is to leave the strongest grape shoots in the quantity we need. This is a very important operation that thins out the bush, freeing up the fruiting zone. If we do not break out all the extra shoots, then a stepson will grow from the axil of each leaf, and in the end, instead of a harvest, we will get only leaves.

The first stage of the “green operation” is to leave the strongest grape shoots in the quantity we need

For a good harvest, the grape bush must be evenly distributed over the trellis so that there is one young shoot per 10 cm of the trellis. If we have a 3 m trellis for grapes, then we should leave no more than 25–30 young vines on it.

First step. We remove everything unnecessary that is below the first wire of the trellis. We break out all the zero shoots growing from the ground, because we already have four sleeves formed and we don’t need extra ones.

Step two. We break out two stepsons that are located below the inflorescences of future clusters, and two stepsons above the inflorescences, leaving one leaf each. Some are inclined to completely remove all the leaves of the stepchildren, but I believe that such a leaf will nourish the axillary bud, in which the crop for the next year is being laid, so it should be left.

It happens that not two shoots grow from one bud, but three. Nature provided this in case, for some reason, the main main bud froze or broke. In this case, we have two dormant buds to restore the bush. But we will remove them and leave only one shoot, the strongest and most conveniently located.

Once every two weeks it is necessary to inspect the grapes and carry out “green operations” without starting or breaking out the grown, thicker shoots.

grapes on a trellis

Garter

The grapes have their own natural tendrils in order to cling to the trellis, but, clinging on their own, they can bunch up and be distributed unevenly, thereby contributing to the thickening of the bush. The more the leaf plate is illuminated by sunlight, the more nutrients will flow into the grape fruits. Therefore, we need to tie up all the shoots evenly along the trellis. The garter can be fabric or in the form of propylene twine. We wrap the garter around the shoot, being careful not to damage it, and be sure to leave room for further growth. A kind of free loop will fulfill its fixing function and leave a reserve for the thickening shoot.

Manipulations with inflorescences

As a rule, two or three inflorescences appear on one grape shoot, but you should not leave them all. Because one vine, depending on the variety, will produce a harvest of 1 to 1.5 kg, and if we leave all three clusters, then the estimated weight will simply be distributed among everyone, reducing the bunches in size. Everyone can choose for themselves what they want to get in the end: one large bunch or three small ones. Perhaps the second option will be preferable for some for some reasons - you can, for example, treat three neighbors. Do not give away the whole bunch or pinch off berries from it. But seriously, the bush should not be overloaded with the harvest, primarily because of the risk of getting low-quality berries, placing an unbearable burden on the vine. Therefore, we leave one inflorescence!

Everyone can choose for themselves what they want to get in the end: one large bunch or three small ones

There are two opinions on when exactly it is necessary to break out excess inflorescences. Some winegrowers believe that this should be done before flowering, while others believe that this should be done after the inflorescences have faded. I am inclined to the second opinion. This gives us the opportunity to see which hand has the best ovary, and only then leave the best one. And another such moment. Clusters of grapes may not bloom at the same time, but at different times, and it is good if the flowering period takes place in favorable weather conditions for high-quality pollination. What if one of the clusters happens to bloom in unfavorable weather, with heavy rains? When it rains, pollen is washed away, preventing pollination. And then, two brushes produce more pollen, which, as a result, makes pollination better.

grape inflorescences

stepson pinching

top in the growing season

Pinching the top - embossing

The grape vine grows, depending on the variety, very long: from 2 to 6 m. And over time, they will need to be pinched, as they say, minted. But this must be done on time, and not during the growing season. If you rush into minting, then stepchildren will inevitably begin to develop, since the vine has not stopped growing, but continues to develop. This wastes the energy of the bush not on the development of fruits, but on the growth of green mass. And one more reason why it is dangerous to pinch too early - dormant buds may wake up, which according to the rules should happen next year. Of course, there are time limits for pinching, but even looking at a bush that is in the process of growing, we will see the tops twisted into rings, signaling us that we need to wait with this procedure. The approximate timing of minting grape tops falls at different times, depending on the ripening period of a particular variety. Early varieties are usually pinched starting from August 5–15, and late varieties from September. At this time, the berries begin to slowly ripen and by pinching the tops, we enhance their ripening. When pinching the top, you need to leave the upper stepchild in order to slow down the development of the shoot and at the same time direct the main nutrients to the brush.

The minting of the tops occurs in three stages:

When the shoot grows 0.5 m above the top wire, we remove its upper part, but leave the two upper stepsons. So that the shoot continues to grow, but slowly, without awakening the dormant buds.
After about 10–15 days, when the stepsons again grow above 0.5 m, we pinch them again, leaving two leaves.
In the third stage of chasing, we will remove the shoot completely, removing all the stepsons and leaving approximately 5 cm above the top three-meter wire. At this time, the grape berries will be almost ripe, and the danger that the axillary buds will wake up will fade away, since the growing season is already in the attenuation stage.

When the grapes begin to ripen

At this time, it is necessary to “lighten” the vine at the location of the clusters so that the sun hits the bunches more. This must be done in time, when the bunches begin to acquire the characteristic color of their variety. The procedure for tearing off leaves around the brushes is carried out in three stages. One week we tear off a third of the leaves, a week later another part, and then we finally open the brushes to the sun. If this is done ahead of time and abruptly, then the brushes may burn in the sun. To protect the bunches from burns, we should leave a stepson with three or two leaves above the cluster, so that they create a kind of openwork shadow and prevent the berries from burning in the summer.

To protect the bunches from burns, we must leave a stepson with three or two leaves above the cluster so that they create a kind of openwork shadow

And finally, one more piece of advice for getting a good one. Use, if possible, not a single-plane, but a two-plane trellis for growing grapes, which will double the yield. The construction of such a trellis is simple. At the bottom between the main posts we leave a distance of 60 cm, and at the top 1.2 m. The posts can also be made parallel rather than v-shaped. The principle is simple: we place two sleeves of grapes on one plane of the trellis and two on the other plane of the trellis. We get a harvest on one and the other. The disadvantages of this method are that you will have to spend more material to create trellises and take up more space on your site. And “green operations” are carried out according to the same principle as on a single-plane trellis.

I hope that my experience will be useful to you in obtaining a good grape harvest. Or maybe some of you will share your knowledge and practical advice? I will be glad to hear your feedback and be pleased with your results. Good luck!