" The author of the following text is the reader of the magazine Przepis na Ogród - Ryszarda Biskup, Jaworzyna Śląska "
In the early spring, I do not hesitate to trim fruit bushes - currants, gooseberries, actinidia, vines and blueberries.We should do it by mid-March.The later date, when the juices start, causes these plants to "cry".
Annual pruning is essential for yield and he althy growth. It ensures constant, even fruiting and increases the yield of the bush. Currants (red and white) and gooseberries set fruit on two-, three- or four-year-old shoots.Cutting rules are not complicated. In the first years, I shorten all the branches over 2-4 eyes. I cut the shoots 1 cm above the bud.
After a few years, a properly formed shrub has 10-12 productive branches. Then every year I cut only those lying on the ground, thin, ingrown
in the middle of the bush and six years old.I leave the 10-12 strongest twigs.
Pruning grapevines is a different story due to the various possibilities of its methods. Remember, however, that we cannot leave the plant alone. The shoots grow stronger the fewer there are on the bush.Fruits are formed from buds growing on one-year old woody shoots, called "beds".
I chose the form of a single Guyot rope to cultivate my grapevine.Bushes formed by this method are best grown in a row of 3-4 wires stretched between the posts. In the first year after planting in the spring, the shoot should be cut to 3 eyes.In the second one - shortly cut one shoot on the bush above the 2 eyelet, bend the other one and, after shortening it to a length of 80 centimeters, attach it horizontally to the wire.This fruit bearing will grow into clusters.
Vine care in practice
In the next season, cut this long shoot right behind the stump, and in this place you bend the replacement bed, which grew from the short-cut shoot
last season.The third shoot grown from the trunk is shortly cut to 2 eyes, it is a substitute bed for the next season.This is what we do every year. When cutting, the shoots are cut over the eyelet with a slight slant in the direction opposite to the eyelet, so that the juice flowing from the wound does not flow onto the bud.
But thanks to all these activities, my bushes bear good-looking, he althy, sweet fruit.
