Viticulture in Tropics - Part 1

in #permaculture7 years ago (edited)

Being obsessed with perennial fruit trees my entire life,
training a grapevine to an arbor was my dream.

I live in a tropical monsoon climate.
So when i planted 4 grapevine cuttings,
others mocked me as grapevine grows in a temperate climate.
But when after an year of growth when the vine was loaded with fruits,
everyone was shocked.

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The secret to my success was my expertise in botany, google,
experimentation and patience.
So i learned many things.
Now i know that most of the conventional methods are wrong from
my own experiments.

There's loads of online resources on Viticulture in Temperate zone.
But none about Tropics.
So i had to experiment and develop my own methods.

So i started by purchasing 4 grape cuttings from nearby nursery.
They were of 2 different varieties.
Black Seeded Table grapes & Black Seeded Wine grapes

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I planted them in my backyard, close to house,
so that i can develop them into an over the terrace arbor.
This will reduce my electricity bill too,
as it provides a passive air cooling
thereby reducing dependency on air conditioner.
All the sunlight unnecessarily heating up the roof will thus be converted to
pesticide free fresh grapes & oxygen.

i did my research on grapevine pruning and improvised it.

First part was developing a strong, indestructible trunk.

Unlike in the temperate zone, grape vine is vigorous in all seasons in tropics.
So 3 years of growth in temperate zone can be achieved in 1 yr in tropics by careful pruning.

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From observation i learned that the rate of primary trunk thickening (Secondary Thickening)
depends upon the total number of leaves above that trunk,
not on the number of branches as i learned in my lower classes.
This may have to do with large amount of glucose
formed in the leaves getting transported to root system.
So to develop a thick trunk allow the grapevine to grow unregulated in 1st year.

Once the trunk is 3 pencil thick, gradually prune off the lateral branches from the ground,
to the desired height of the arbor.

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There's a misconception that winter chilling is required for flower bud initiation in grapevine.
This's wrong. Chilling is not a factor.
Maturity of lateral buds is the key.
So after a period of growth, after secondary branches becomes brown,
break the dormancy of lateral buds by pruning.
This will cause growth of lateral buds and along with it 1 or 2 inflorescence.

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to be continued...

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