Grape Species, Varietes And Rootstocks

Question 0

Vitis riparia, Vitis rupestris, Vitis berlandieri

Answer 0

These three species are native to North America and are rarely used in for winemaking, however they are resistant to vine pest phylloxera, so they are used to provide root systems

Question 1

What is Vitis Vinifera ?

Answer 1

This is the main Eurasian species. It produces nearly all the grapes used in winemaking and has been used to make wine for several thousand years. There are thought to be between 5000 and 10 000 varieties of V.vinifera

Question 2

Shoots

Answer 2

Shoots are new growth a vine produces each year. along the length of each shoot are a number of regularly spaced bumps called nodes. At each node there will be a leaf and a flower or a leaf and a tendril. Buds form where leaf stems join the shoot.

Question 3

Leaves

Answer 3

these are the plants engines. They are principally responsible for photosynthesis, which is the process by which plants use chlorophyll and energy from sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar glucose and oxygen.

Question 4

Tendrils

Answer 4

Unlikes trees, vines are not able to support themselves so they need to grip a supporting structure in order to stay upright. A tendril is the what a vine uses to grip to things to do this

Question 5

Flowers and Berries

Answer 5

Flowers are the vines reproductive organs. A vines flowers are hermaphrodite. The flowers are grouped in bunched called inflorescences. Each flower that is successfully pollinated will become a berry so the inflorescence will become a bunch of grapes.

Question 6

One year old wood

Answer 6

Shoots turn woody during the winter after they have grown. the following spring they become one year old wood.

Question 7

Buds

Answer 7

these form between the leaf and the shoot and once formed they mature so by the end of the year they will become the shoot,tendrils etc the following year

Question 8

Permanent wood

Answer 8

this is wood which is more than one year old. the amount of permanent wood is restricted by pruning.

Question 9

The Roots

Answer 9

Their function is to absorb water and nutrients from the soil.

Question 10

Cutting

Answer 10

a section taken from a healthy shoot before it has become woody, This is planted, takes root and grows into a new plant.

Question 11

Layering

Answer 11

workings by bending a cane down and burying a section of it in the ground. The buried section will take root.

Question 12

Crossings

Answer 12

A grape variety whose original ‘parent’ vine was grown from a seed whose parent plants were both V.Vinifera

Question 13

Hybrids

Answer 13

A hybrid is a vine whose parents come from two different species of V.vinifera.

Question 14

Phylloxera

Answer 14

A vine pest. Kills vines like an asshole

Question 15

Grafting

Answer 15

A technique used to join a hybrid rootstock to a V.vinifera variety. We now use the technique Bench Grafting

Question 16

Head Grafting

Answer 16

The existing vine is cut back so that only the trunk remains and either a bud or a cutting from the new variety is grafted onto the trunk.