THE CULTIVATION OF GRAPES IN POTS. 



Ill 



nefit of more air and a lower temperature 

 at night. By the beginning of September, 

 if the former directions have been followed, 

 the vines will be ripe enough to place out of 

 door. The north side of a wall is the best 

 place, and the pots should be laid on their 

 sides> and every means taken to throw the 

 plants into a state of rest; the cultivator 

 will thus find himself in possession of vines 

 which for strength and vigorous habits may 

 justly be mistaken for older plants. 



It will be seen, then, that the principles 

 acted on above are, selecting properly ma- 

 tured wood for cuttings — inserting only one 

 eye in each pot to prevent any check to the 

 plant in re-potting — placing them at once 

 in the pot in which they are to fruit — ex- 

 posing them during their growth to the 

 greatest possible amount of light you can 

 give them, taking especial care to have the 

 wood perfectly ripe, and inducing an early 

 state of repose. But if the above mode of 

 obtaining fruiting vines for one year, should 

 be thought too troublesome, from the plants 

 requiring bottom-heat during their first 

 stage, the eyes may be planted singly, as 

 before, in 48-pots, and set in any house or 

 pit where there is a little heat ; they will 

 be longer, however, by this method in 

 developing their roots, and may not want 

 shifting into larger pots before May or June. 

 When the plants may be shifted into 24s, 

 in which they may remain through the sea- 

 son, in any house or pit in which room can 

 be found for them, paying attention to 

 watering, tieing up, &c. They may be 

 stopped when 2 or 3 feet high, and when 

 the wood is fully ripened, removed out of 

 the house and plunged in any material out 

 of doors that is a non-conductor of heat. In 

 February or March, cut these plants down 

 to two or three eyes, shake them entirely 

 out of their pots, and place them in similar 

 sized pols to fiuit in as the former ones, 

 taking care to spread their roots (in potting) 

 regularly through the soil, and when growth 

 commences, each spongelet may be in im- 

 mediate contact with food ; this is a much 

 better practice than placing tliem in a po: 

 without disturbing the ball, ;is i nC<\- '• 

 The same routine of manag^'iiM ■' :: 

 followed vviih t-^esr ihrougii lin 

 recommended for the o^her:-. 

 larger amount of organ izuble niaii ;■: 



vine possesses by this mode of treatment, 

 they will generally be found stronger than 

 those raised the same year, and they pos- 

 sess the advantage of ripening their wood 

 earlier in the summer. It will depend on 

 the means the cultivator has at his disposal 

 which plan he follows. 



The next consideration is the time when 

 you wish your grapes to ripen ; this being 

 ascertained, it is easily know^n when for- 

 cing ought to commence. It may be stated 

 that vines under the above mentioned treat- 

 ment will be ready for forcing early in No- 

 vember, and consequently will ripen their 

 crop by the end of March. As the princi- 

 pal use of vines in pots here are kept to 

 occupy the houses (where vines are planted 

 on the outside) during the period that they 

 are inactive, say from November to May, 

 those in pots are generally forwarded in 

 their first stage in any pit or house whose 

 temperature may happen to suit them, and, 

 finally, when the wood of the permanent 

 vines is sufficiently ripened to allow of 

 their being placed outside, the pots are 

 taken in and arranged in their places on 

 shelves put up for the purpose ; by these 

 means the houses are of far more use than 

 if they remained empty nearly half the 

 year. However, the precise mode in which 

 the vines are to be fruited depends on the 

 kind of houses the cultivator has at his 

 command; a flued pit answers well; but 

 the best description of houses is that which 

 admits the rays of the sun to pass through 

 it in the winter at as near right angles as 

 can be. Such a house, admitting conside- 

 rably more light during the winter months, 

 is much more suitable for such a plant as 

 the vine than low flat houses. Whatever 

 the house is, if not perfectly ready for the 

 vines when you wish to begin forcing, get 

 them placed in a dung frame where you 

 can give them a moist heat of 55"^, this will 

 cause their buds to swell regularly, and 

 prepare them for their removal to the fruit- 

 ing-house, when ready, without losing time. 

 Previous to losing their leaves in the au- 

 tumn, they may, if thought advisable, be 

 lisbudded on Roberts' system, leaving a 

 fr-w more buds than you want bunches; 

 hit one objeciion to this system is, that if 

 hv any accident through the winter the bud 

 should get injured, it leaves a blank which, 



