Cultivation practices of Grape or Package practice of Grape

Cultivation practices of Grape

Botanical name :Vitis vinifera, family: Vitaceae, pollination system: cross pollinated, Cromosome number: 2n=38, viticulture- cultivation of grapes; Viriculture- study of wine from grapes; Enology- science of wine making. Aroma is due to methyl anthralinate; Red colour is due to anthocyanin; Influences-panicle, botanically fruit is berry, edible portion Placenta pericarp.

Composition and uses

Grapes contains sugar as Fructose and glucose. Maleic acid, tartaric acid and citric acid are important organic acids, calcium, potassium, ion and other minerals. It has fairly good amount of Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Fructose is predominant sugar in grapes. Red wine has anticarcinogenic property.

Varieties 

Beauty seedless, Anab-e-Shahi, Thompson seedless, Bengalore blue, Black champa, Arka sweta, Arka mejestic,Gulabi, sharad seedless etc

Soil and climate 

Sandy to clayey and loamy soils with good drainage and irrigation facilities is suitable for the cultivation of grapes. Soil having PH value from 6.5 to 7.5 are most suitable. Temperature ranging from 15 - 35 °C is ideal for shoot growth and normal physiological process of the grapevine wines. Vines do not grow and fruit well when the temperature falls below 10°C and more than 35°C.

Propagation 

Hard wood cuttings. Cutting should be of 23 to 46 cm long depending on internodal length of varieties and panicle thickness 7-8 mm.

Cultivation 

Land preparation : the land is thoroughly ploughed and levelled. The wind rows are oriented in the north south direction in order to expose the leaves on both sides of the vines to sunlight. The size of plot will vary with the type of training system used. In case of bower and telephone or T trellis the ideal size could be 60x80m  and 90 x 120 m respectively.

 Season of planting 

Normally the planting is done during November- January in Central India. December -January in South Karnataka.

Spacing

Spacing of 6 x 3m (Anab-e-shahi) or 4 x 3m(bengalore blue) for vigorous varieties and 3 x2m, 3 x 3m for less vigorous varieties. 

Pit digging

Pics of size 60 - 90 cm3 should be open at least one month prior to planting and exposed to Sun. Each pit is filled with topsail first followed by subsoil mixer with well decomposed FYM, 1 kg superphosphate and 500 gram sulphate of Potash, 50 gram each of zinc sulphate and ferrous sulphate.

Training 

• Train the main stem up a stout bamboo cane. Remove any excess stems appearing from the base
• Allow side branches to develop on the main stem for the first one to two years
• In the third winter, remove all side branches from the bottom and middle of the stem, leaving only the top branches. Allow five to six side branches to develop at the top
• Prune the side branches to five leaves, not allowing them to get any longer
• Pinch back any off-shoots developing from the side branches to one leaf
• Only allow one bunch of grapes to develop in the first cropping year, removing any others that start to develop. In subsequent years, allow one bunch of grapes per side branch
• In early winter, prune the side branches back to two buds.

Pruning 

• The main pruning season for grape vines is early winter, but they need regular pruning and maintenance throughout the growing season to keep them manageable and productive. The two main pruning systems I.e., Backward pruning and  forward pruning. 
• All the fruiting canes are pruned back to spurs returning only one Basil node. This is called back pruning or Foundation pruning or summer pruning (April-May).
• The mature shoots are pruned for fruiting before the onset of winter. This pruning is called forward pruning or fruit pruning or winter pruning(Sep-Oct).

Irrigation.

Light irrigation of 50 - 75 mm is given at an interval of 10 to 12 days during winter and 5 to 7 days in summer. Irrigation frequently is reduced during anthesis, fruiting stage and also after berry softening to improve fruit quality.

Manures and fertilizers

Magnesium deficiency is the world problem in grape cultivation.

Harvesting

• In North India plants starts fruiting after 2 years of planting.
• But break to blooming 47 to 70 days.
• Ready for harvest in 100 to 120 days after flowering. 
• Berries starts ripening from the end of May in early varieties. A day prior to picking the broken  decayed, deformed, undersized berries are removed. 
• The average yield of Anab-e-Shahi and Bangalore Blue is 40 - 50 tons per hectare while the seedless variety is is 20 tons per hectare.