Maiden grapes, whose homeland is the countries of East Asia, the Himalayas, North America, thanks to such a wide geography, is cultivated in almost all climatic zones of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.
A fairly winter-hardy plant, representing a woody vine, with beautiful leaves and bluish-black berries, a girl’s grape, the photo of which is published below, enjoys special attention of summer residents, owners of suburban areas.
Girl's grape - care: features
Despite the lack of beautiful fragrant flowers, the inedibility of fruits, the girl’s grapes, the planting of which is quite simple, won popularity among gardeners with luxurious foliage, quick survival, and the ability to mask unsightly objects on the site.
With the help of this culture, shading and protection from wind and rain is created in the gazebo, open veranda, on the balcony. Green foliage persists until the fall, and then turns bright orange and red colors, pleasing to the eye and uplifting on gray autumn days.
But not only the rapid growth, decorativeness of this plant is interesting. Its usefulness is due to such properties as:
• improvement of the surrounding microclimate, due to the suppression of the development of some pathogens;
• obstacle to the penetration of dust, gases into the premises;
• protection of the house, another room, covered with a dense carpet of greenery, from overheating;
• the ability to grow with minimal care;
• resistance to pests and diseases;
• the ability to plant bird grapes in simple ways.
Types and varieties of maiden grapes for planting
The use of girl's grapes mainly for landscaping fences, walls of buildings, verandas, arbors, pergolas is facilitated by the ability of vines to rise to a great height, thanks to the antennae that serve as suction cups. Many large decorative leaves create a dense carpet that changes color from green to red, orange, burgundy shades by autumn.
The most commonly cultivated varieties among gardeners are:
• five-leafed or virgin grapes with leaves similar to chestnut leaves reaching a height of fifteen meters;
• triostric or ivy grapes grown on vertical surfaces and on the ground.
Each of these species is divided into several varieties. Virgin or five-leaf grapes in vivo grows in North America. It is frost-resistant and grows well even in Western Siberia. For the virginian species, the most popular and valuable is Don Giovanni. This variety reaches a length of 20 meters. The shoots of this plant are lengthened by 2-2.5 meters annually.
A popular triosthenic species is the Vicha grape, which grows in southeast Asia. The variety is suitable for landing near roads, as it is not afraid of exhaust gases, smoke. The shoots of this plant can stretch for 4 meters per year.
Girl's grapes - planting: choice of place
An unpretentious plant, which is a girl's grape, gratefully responds to good care, lighting, fertile soil. If you want to grow a beautiful and strong plant, then the first thing you need to choose a place for planting girl's grapes. Although the culture will feel great in shading and in lighting, the color of the leaves will be different. When lianas grow in a bright place, the leaves in the fall change their green color to burgundy, red, orange. If the plant grows with a lack of light, then the leaves will remain green until winter, depriving the owners of the site of contemplation of the fiery coloring of the carpet formed by the girl's grape. Bushes also grow faster in well-lit areas.
Girl's grape - planting: planting time and soil preparation
For girl's grapes, planting can be carried out in the spring or autumn time of the year. Usually, the culture takes root well, both in September-October, and in April-May. Opinions on a more favorable landing time differ, which often depends on the type of crop.
Regardless of the time of year, it is advisable to prepare the soil for planting. Any cultivated soil is suitable for planting this vine. But wanting to get strong plants, before planting, you should dig the soil, dig a hole, the depth of which will be about half a meter or a little deeper. Place broken brick as drainage in the pit, fill up about 20 centimeters of sand, and fill the soil mixture from above. The soil mixture consists of compost, leaf soil, sand. Each component is taken in a ratio of 2: 2: 1. On well-fertilized soil, the plant will grow perfectly without fertilizing a couple of years.
Girl's Grapes: Reproduction
There are several ways to plant and propagate this beautiful vine. To get to know them it is worth looking at the girl's grapes in the photo:
Propagation by layering
Propagation by cuttings
Seed propagation
Propagation by root offspring
To plant a culture by layering, it is necessary to choose the longest lash with kidneys, dig a groove 5 centimeters deep. Next, layering is wave-shaped in the groove. In this case, part of the layering, which will be underground, is pinned with a paper clip, hairpin or a piece of bent wire. After sprinkling with earth, the future bush is watered. If you take a short layering, it also fits into a dug shallow groove, watered with water, but the top up to 15 centimeters high remains above the ground.
To propagate cuttings of maiden grapes before planting, branches are first cut in thickness that do not exceed a pencil, which are planted in previously prepared ground. When planting in this way, two buds should remain on the part of the branch remaining above the ground. After planting, the cuttings are watered.
Planting grapes with seeds seems to be a more complex and painstaking process. Before planting, seeds must be soaked or stratified by placing sand or other wet substrate.
It is convenient to propagate girl's grapes with root offspring. Root offspring are formed in overgrown shoots of vines. They are easily removed for planting in a new place where pits break out in advance. The distance between the pits should be from half a meter to a meter.
Girl's Grapes: Care
The simplicity of caring for girl’s grapes attracts many summer residents who cannot constantly live outside the city. The culture is resistant to lack of water, frost, but responds well to watering, especially with prolonged heat. Watering in the dry season will help preserve the plant's decorative effect. Also, for the plant, it is necessary to establish supports, tie up.
Simple growth will help improve growth, including:
• top dressing;
• loosening the soil; weed removal, mulching with peat, sawdust, fallen rotted leaves;
• pruning.
For feeding, which is recommended to be carried out twice a season, nitroammophosk in the amount of 50 grams per square meter is suitable, the preparation "Kemira Universal" in the amount of up to 200 grams.
Pruning is necessary to remove unnecessary as well as dry branches, limit the volume of bushes, and create the desired shapes. For example, the girl’s grape in the photo forms a hedge, decorates the entrance.
Young plants, especially those planted with cuttings, need protection from frost for the first year. For this, the creepers are covered with snow or some improvised material. Having survived the first winter, girl’s grapes will increase winter hardiness, and will not need special shelters.
Girl's grapes: diseases, pests
An unpretentious plant is little susceptible to invasion of pests, diseases. But on five-leafed grapes may appear slugs, which can be combated by treating the plant with special chemicals.
On the leaves of the creeper can be found aphids, you can get rid of which you can douse the plant with a strong water stream.
Disease or damage to the plant by insects can be identified by yellow, red spots on the leaves.
Girl's grape from ancient times is one of the elements of landscape design. From time immemorial, stepped terraces, balconies, walls have been woven with lianas, creating bizarre shapes. The simplicity of growing this culture allows any owner of a suburban area, a summer resident to turn his territory into a fabulous garden.
