JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 13, 1870. 



shooting. The plan was adopted in a great emergency, twi- 

 light coming on, and a severe frost setting in, and it suc- 

 ceeded. — Devon. 



WHAT MAY BE DONE IN A VINERY. 



Allow me to ask a few questions, also to state my position 

 in reference to my vinery. Before I occupied the premises I 

 now have, thero were a number of bunches of Grapes which I 

 thought were badly grown. On looking over your Journal of 

 November 25tb, I found an answer to " A Young Vine-orower," 

 telling him how to refresh and top-dress a Vine border. I 

 took the hint and set to work. I had brought one load of good 

 grass sods of from 2 to -4 inches thick, chopped them up in the 

 yard, and then added 2 cwt. of half-inch bones, loam, char- 

 coal, and lime scrapings. When all was mixed together I 

 began to remove a little of the soil, which was a mixture of 

 clay and other soil ; I thought according to your doctrine that 

 was not suitable for Grape-growing. I had it taken out about 

 a foot deep, and could see few or no roots. Two or three cart- 

 loads of turf were brought, with more charcoal and lime, to 

 make the border a little higher than before. It was then 

 covered with horse manure, and plastered with cow dung to 

 keep the heat in and the rain out. The border is 36 feet long 

 by !) wide, and inside. The house is 33 feet long, 12 feet wide, 

 and 6 feet high at the front, with glass slides. It is 16 feet 

 high at the back, with three small slides at the top. It con- 

 tains ten good fifteen-yenr-old Vines, neatly dressed, cut back, 

 and painted with train oil and sulphur, all being ready for fire 

 this month. The names of the Vines are Black Damascus, 

 Canon Hall Muscat, Muscat of Alexandria, Dutch Hamburgh, 

 Barbarossa, Grizzly Frontignan, and three are without names. 



Having given a detailed account of my doings, and a descrip- 

 tion of the house facing the south-east, I shall be glad of your 

 opinion as well as advice how to proceed. Could I grow Mush- 

 rooms, Cucumbers, or trees, and a few plants, without in- 

 juring the Grapes ? If so, I shall be glad of your directions. 

 — Sheffield. 



[We approve of all that you have done as to top-dressing 

 the Vine border, if we understand the processes aright. In 

 forcing such Vines on the 1st of January we should have been 

 satisfied with 2 or 3 inches of rich top-dressing after removing 

 the surface soil ; and a covering of about 1 foot of litter or tree 

 leaves, with a little heat, would have enticed the roots up into 

 the new material, when a little more could have been added. 

 There is one thing which we would not have liked to have done — 

 that is, painted the Vines all over with train oil and sulphur. 

 If the Vines were ours we would wash the most of the oil off 

 by a strong lather of soap and water. We have seeu other 

 plants suffer from oil, in fact, been killed by it, but we do not 

 recall an instance of having seen oil applied to Vines, so we 

 cannot speak from practice or observation ; still, we have 

 doubts of the oil painting. Tour Vines are of good kinds, but 

 Black Damascus and Canon Hall Muscat require a high tempe- 

 rature, especially at setting and ripening time, in order to se- 

 cure regulnr bunches and good-flavoured fruit. For many 

 details and general directions we can recommend " The Vine 

 Manual," which you can have, postage paid, for 2s. 8d. in 

 stamps. Most of the other matters just instanced require 

 more consideration. 



Any vinery may be made into a plant house when the Vines 

 are in a state of rest, say in your case from September to Feb- 

 ruary ; for after the Vines break, and a higher temperature is 

 required, the plants that would suit in winter would have too 

 much heat then. When the Vines cover the roof with foliage, 

 any stove plants or tender annuals will do well in front of the 

 house, or in any of the openings where light can reach them. 

 All such vineries may be made into cool greenhouses in winter 

 if the average temperature at night do not rise higher than 

 from 40° to 45 . When bedding plants are thus stored, they 

 should be taken out when the temperature is raised above 50°, 

 otherwise they will feel the change more when moved. In all 

 cases of making the most of such a house, much will depend 

 on skill and foresight in moving in time. 



Much flower and shrub-forcing could be carried on in such a 

 vinery, for instance, bulbs and Roses, but the plants should be 

 moved before they would be rendered tender by the additional 

 heat, and be hardened off by degrees. Supposing that you start 

 with 45 , and rise to a night average of 50° in eight days, to 55° 

 in three weeks, and to 60° in a month, you could have no better 

 place for starting Boses in pots, or bringing on good plants of 

 Scarlet Pelargoniums ; but both would be out of place when 



you raised the temperature to from 60° to 70°. Much, how- 

 ever, may be done by frequent moving, and giving the plants 

 as much light as possible. 



As to fruiting plants in potB, you may manage Peaches, 

 Nectarines, Figs, &c, in pots very well in the open spaces, only 

 it is essential, as respects Peaches and Nectarines, that they 

 be tolerably forward, so that you may have them in bloom and 

 set before the Vines begin to push much. This is easily done 

 by making the forcing more gradual — that is, keeping the 

 house longer at an average night temperature of 55°, and this, 

 with a rise from sunshine, will enable you to give enough of 

 air to the Peaches in bloom. The flavour of the fruit when 

 ripe will greatly depend on the direct light you can give. In 

 all houses intended for much-in-little the Vines should not bs 

 close, so as to cover the roof with a dense foliage. 



Cucumbers may also be grown in such a house, but they are 

 not to be commended, as they are more liable to the attacks of 

 insects in the hands of those not well experienced. Of course 

 it would be of no use growing Cucumbers in the open atmo- 

 sphere of such a house until the average temperature at night 

 were fully 65°. As you do not say how the inside of your 

 house is arranged, we shall mention three modes of growing 

 Cucumbers successfully. First, by making a bed inside the 

 house, and placing a frame of glass over it. In this way the 

 Cucumbers may be started, and have a suitable temperature 

 when the general temperature of the house is only about 50° — 

 that is, 10° or 15° less than inside the frame. When the 

 average temperature of the house ranged from 65° the sashea 

 and frame would scarcely be needed, and we have allowed the 

 Cucumber plants to grow freely beyond their first space. 

 Secondly, there is often a pit or low bed in the centre of the 

 house, acting, so far as pot plants are concerned, much the 

 same as a stage. In the bed, Cucumbers will do very fairly as 

 an under crop if the roof is not too densely clothed with Vine 

 foliage. The third mode we would allude to is that most gene- 

 rally suitable — namely, growing the Cucumber plants in boxes 

 or pots, say from 12 to IB inches in diameter, set over or close 

 to the heating medium, be it flues or pipes. Cucumbers bear 

 very profusely under this treatment, and, well watered, even a 

 12-inch pot will produce many fine fruit. The pot may be 

 placed where there is an opening, but generally the plants do 

 best when close to or over the heating medium. For this we 

 have raised the plants in a small dung-bed frame ; we have 

 also raised them in a vinery by securing extra heat by cover- 

 ing with a hand-light, &c, and shifting the plants as they grew 

 until we could keep them at the warmest place, and they filled 

 Cinch pots with roots. By that time the heat of the house 

 would be suitable, say from 65° at night, and the plants were 

 at once transferred to their fruiting pots, using fresh sandy 

 fibrous loam, some sweet decayed leaf mould or cow dung, and 

 a good sprinkling of small pieces of charcoal. In potting, the 

 ball would be left at least 2 or 3 inches from the rim, to per- 

 mit of frequent slight rich top-dressings. The best position 

 for such pots would be over the heating medium, and the 

 manner of placing them there would be to fix a pan of the 

 suitable size, put something in the pan, as three pieces of 

 stone, Ac, say from 1 to 2 inches in height, on these set the 

 pot, and then keep the bottom of the pan or basin supplied, 

 with water. The bottom of the pot may just touch the water. 

 We have seen, and have grown, fine Cucumbers by this mode. 

 As soon as the Grapes show signs of ripening, the Cucumber 

 plants should be removed, as the drier atmosphere then re- 

 quired would not be so suitable to the Cucumber. We would, 

 therefore, confine such Cucumber-growing in a vinery chiefly 

 to early fruit. We may here mention that we have had fine 

 Cucumbers in such a house, where light could be obtained near 

 the apex, by having boxes or pots on a shelf, say 3 feet from 

 the top of the back wall. In this case the wall above the 

 boxes should be black and not white. 



As to Mushrooms, no place could answer better for a bed 

 than the middle of the house, say from September to the 

 middle of February. After March, if you commence to force 

 in January, the air will be too warm for them, unless you keep 

 them cool by covering, and then having the surface of the 

 covering constantly moist. They do well all the winter under 

 a stage filled with plants, if care be taken that there is not 

 much drip from watering the plants, or if there is a waterproof 

 cloth or covering over the bed. The bed would be kept warm 

 enough in winter by a covering of clean litter, even when the ave- 

 rage temperature of the house was not above 45° at the highest. 

 Many years ago, from a good bed in the centre of a wide vinery, 

 we gathered as many Mushrooms as would have gone far to 



