THE POT CULTURE OF GRAPES : TRAINING, ETC. 73 



5. Temperature, Bottom-heat, etc. Vine-eyes, on being struck, 

 should be plunged in a bed having a bottom-heat of 80 and an 

 atmospheric temperature by fire-heat of 65 or 70, which by sun-heat 

 may be allowed to rise to 90 or 100. Too much sun-heat can 

 scarcely be indulged in, if the atmosphere is plentifully charged with 

 moisture. The same regulations as to temperature apply throughout 

 the season, or until the Vines begin to ripen. Bottom-heat, i.e., the 

 plunging of the pots in a heated medium, is not requisite when the 

 plants become large. Some cultivators, however, continue to main- 

 tain bottom-heat in one form or another during the whole growing 

 season. 



6. Training, Stopping, etc. As the young Vines grow they require 

 to be staked, and to have the tendrils and lateral shoots pinched off 

 as they are put forth. The leading shoot should not be stopped until 

 it has grown to the required length. Some recommend stopping it 

 when about eighteen inches in length about the time the plant is 

 fairly rooted in the eight-inch pot and training up, not the first, but 

 the second lateral shoot that is produced, to form the stem. This 

 stopping is believed to concentrate more strength in the lower portion 

 of the stem, but we have not found it of any practical utility. The 

 young stem, although appearing slender when eighteen inches or so in 

 length, rapidly gets thicker and stronger if properly cared for. When 

 the Vines have arrived at their full length, from six to eight or ten 

 feet, as the case may be, this being generally regulated by the size of 

 the pit or structure in which they may be grown, they must be 

 stopped ; and the laterals, as they appear, must be closely stopped 

 also to the first leaf, in exactly the same manner as recommended for 

 permanent Vines. When the canes have ripened, which may be in 

 November, they should be at once pruned ; that is, all the lateral 

 spurs should be cut off, and the stem cut down to the length required 

 from five to eight feet, according to its strength. 



7. Position, Situation, etc. The young Vines whilst growing 

 should be kept as close to the glass as possible, and as they increase 

 in length a good situation for them is along the front of a low pit 

 or house, training the rods to a trellis against the roof. In this 

 manner the whole of the leaves, etc., are fully exposed to the sun's 

 influence, and well-developed fruit-buds are produced the entire 

 length of the rod. This is why home-grown Vines are often 

 superior to nursery plants ; because in nurseries, they are mostly 

 grown in a vertical position, and being necessarily thickly placed, 

 plump and well-developed buds are frequently only produced at the 

 top of the canes. 



8. Ripening the Canes. The ordinary method, towards the end 

 of the season, when the Vines are fully grown and show signs of 

 ripening, which they will do naturally, is to give gradually more air 

 and less water, and after a short time to allow them to be fully 



