554 Juuriiiil of Afinriiitiiit, Victoria. [10 Sept., 1917. 



SPRING GRAFTING OF THE VINE. 



By F. (h CasteUa, Governnient Viticulturist. 



The season having ai-rived for spring or ordinary grafting, it is 

 opportune to describe the method by which ungrafted resistant rootlings 

 planted a year ago can be grafted to viuiferas, or, in other words, trans- 

 formed into fruit-producing vines. 



For the benefiti of those unfamiliar with vine culture, it may be ex- 

 plained that the presence of phylloxera no longer renders it possible to 

 grow European vines on their own roots, as was always done in earlier 

 days. In all districts wliere phylloxera is to be feared, our vines must 

 now be worked on resistiant stocks, just as apple growers have found it 

 necessary to work their apples on a blight- proof stock, capable of resist- 

 ing the woolly aphis, an insect belonging to the same group as phylloxera. 

 A resistant vineyard may be established in two ways — 



1. JBy planting already grafted vines, bench grafted, and struck in 



a nursery. These are usvially termed grafted rootlings. 

 '2. By planting the vineyard with ungrafted resistant rootlings, 

 which will be grafted the following season with the European 

 or " viuifera " scion, from which it is desired to obtain fruit. 

 The operation is in this case known as field grafting (some- 

 times also termed vineyard grafting) to distinguish it from 

 bench grafting, so termed from tlie operation being performed 

 at a bench or table in a work.shop. 

 The relative merits of the two methods have given rise to much dis- 

 cussion. Plantation with grafted rootlings permits the elimination of all 

 faulty unions when lifting in the nursei'y, thus insuring an absolutely 

 even vineyard — what is termed in America a " perfect stand." The ad- 

 vantage of this led to tihe gradual superseding of the older system of re- 

 constitution by means of field grafting, especially in France, where the 

 cold, wet spring is often unsuitable for tJie operation. 



And yet field grafting also has its advantages; given an absolutely 

 satisfactory graft, it usually results in a more vigorous and fruitful vine 

 than a grafted rootling planted originally at tbe same time, and this for 

 a simple reason. The field-grafted vine makes its root system 

 the first season, and its union with the scion in the second. Dur- 

 ing tlie first season its growth is very vigorous, epecially below ground ; 

 more so, in fact, than that of a grafted vine, the union of which, no 

 matter how perfect it may be, presents a slight, though real, obstacle to 

 free sap flow, resulting in somewhat; less' powerful root development. In 

 o her words, the field graft is hardier. During the drought of 1914, 

 several cases were recorded where all ungrafted vines survived, whilst 

 there was more or less mortality among grafted rootlings planted at the 

 same time in the same vineyard. A couple of years latter, and after 

 they had been grafted for over twelve months, the greater vigour of the 

 former wah very noticeable. Many practical growers who have tried both 

 systems prefer the field graft, both as regards vigour and fruitfulness, 

 at least during the first few years. Later on, according to French 

 authorities, the difference is less noticeable. 



But, unless a very high percentage of perfect grafts be obtained, the 

 greater evenness of the vineyard planted with bench grafts will outweigli 

 the greatter vigour of the field grafts. Nothing is more unsatisfactory 



