74 THE PRODUCTION OF FRUITING VINES IN POTS. 



exposed or removed to the open air. The plants, however, should 

 never be allowed to flag or to suffer by the want of water. This is a 

 practice followed by some cultivators, which is calculated to seriously 

 injure the Vines. 



The Production of Fruiting Vines in Two or more Tears. The 

 treatment to be followed is practically the same as that required for 

 the one -year old Vines, with this difference, that instead of " eyes " to 

 be propagated, it is young plants which have to be dealt with. In 

 winter these young Vines should be cut down to one or two eyes or 

 buds, and in January or February the pots should be placed in heat. 

 As soon as the " eyes have started," the plants should be re-potted, the 

 old soil being all shaken out and new soil applied. The smaller the 

 pot that will contain the roots the better. These should be plunged 

 in bottom-heat, and potted as required, and as already directed. 

 These " cut-back " Vines having somewhat the start of the " eyes," 

 generally form the largest and strongest plants. They ma} T be, and 

 are sometimes, grown to a great size, and potted in large pots, when 

 they produce enormous crops, some twenty-five or thirty bunches on a 

 single Vine, notable examples of which have been often exhibited by 

 Messrs. Lane & Son, of Berkhamstead. Some of these large Vines 

 may be fruited in pots for several years. 



The Production of Pot Vines by Lowers. Mr. W. Miller, gardener 

 at Combe Abbey, Coventry, practises another mode of raising pot 

 Vines, viz., by layering, which is the simplest and easiest of all, 

 and can be followed by any one in possession of a Vinery and a Vine, 

 no elaborately heated propagating pit being required. This plan, as 

 explained by Mr. Miller, consists in growing during the one season a 

 young rod or two from near the base of the Vine it is wished to 

 propagate ; then in the early spring following, having such a young 

 cane provided, to train it along horizontally, and having placed a 

 number of eight-inch or ten-inch pots, filled with good soil, in a row 

 on the border, or on a convenient shelf, to fix the shoot firmly by a 

 stout peg in each pot, to cover over with a little soil, and then to 

 water thoroughly. The operation is then complete, and shoots are 

 very speedily produced if the soil is kept in a properly moist condi- 

 tion. Care must be taken to place the pots immediately under the 

 eyos, and every eye thus placed produces a plant. Vines thus layered 

 in April, if the Vines are in a growing state, may be cut away by the 

 middle or end of May, the plants being then several feet in length, 

 and the pots full of roots. 



