HOW TO GET EARLY GRAPES IN VINERIES. 



205 



Ho\w to take an Early Crop of Grapes in Vineries. 



BY PETER HENDERSON, PITTSBURGH, Pa. 



The culture of the finer varieties of the 

 Grape under glass, is fast becoming a mat- 

 ter of much interest to amateurs and pro- 

 fessional gardeners in various parts of the 

 Union, and certainly would soon become 

 much more so, were it not for an opinion 

 advanced by almost all writers on this sub- 

 ject, viz., that we must exercise the virtue 

 of patience for three or four years, before 

 we allow our labor and investment to be re- 

 compensed by a crop of grapes. The rea- 

 son given for this is, that by permitting 

 the vine to bear in its second, or (by some) 

 third season, from the time of planting, that 

 its fruitful energies are cramped for future 

 years. I will not venture to dispute the 

 correctness of this dogma, correctly advan- 

 ced by older and wiser heads than mine, 

 but will confine myself to briefly detailing 

 a method which overcomes the necessity of 

 this " long waiting," and that too without 

 virtually interfering with the above es- 

 tablished opinion. 



Before entering into a description of the 

 method, I would premise that it is not ad- 

 vanced in the present instance as any thing 

 new, having been practised, as a correspon- 

 dent informs me, in the vicinity of Boston, 

 for several years. But never having seen 

 it in any work, perhaps it may be useful to 

 some of the readers of the Horticulturist. 



Supposing a vinery to be planted in spring, 

 with one year old plants from pots, by the 

 end of the season, if the border is what it 

 should be, each plant will have made a 

 shoot extending eighteen or twenty feet, or 

 to the top of the rafter. (Fig. 57, a.) At the 

 time of pruning, these shoots are cut down to 

 eight or ten feet from the ground, or as far as 

 the wood is well ripened. When the buds be- 



gin to swell, pots, twelve or fifteen inches in 

 diameter, are provided, well drained, and 

 filled with very rich compost. These are 

 then placed close to the vine, on the surface 

 of the border, or sunk a few inches as re- 

 quired. Then at twelve or eighteen inches 

 from the ground, (according to the height 

 of the pot,) the vine is held firmly in one 

 hand, while with the other it is twisted 

 once short round ; the crippled part is then 

 buried three or four inches in the earth of 

 the pot, a brick is placed on the top to pre- 

 vent it from springing up, the shoot is tied 

 to the rafter, and the business of forcing 

 continued as usual. (Fig. 57, b.) 



Every practical man will at once under- 

 stand the utility of this method. The sap 

 being impeded in its ascent by the twisted 

 condition of the shoot, roots are emitted, as 

 in ordinary modes of layering. These, in a 

 short time, fill the pot from which the fruit- 

 bearing branch is to derive its principal 

 nourishment ; at the same time the vine will 

 break strongly hclow the twisted part, when 

 as many shoots (c) may be led up as the 

 system of training intended requires. 



This method of taking a crop from young 

 vines has been most successfully practised 

 here, in the newly erected graperies of Mr. 

 Spang. For the sake of experiment, two 

 or three were cut off at where the others 

 were twisted ; but the growths these have 

 made are in no respect superior to their 

 fruit-bearing neighbors, which goes far to 

 prove that the layer, in this case, is no drain 

 upon the main root, and consequently this 

 manner of cropping young vines can be in 

 no way injurious to their future fertility. 

 Those who would be scrupulous of allow- 

 ing their vines to bear the third season 



