310 CALIFORNIA FRUITS I HOW TO GROW THEM 



numbers of suckers from below ground and watersprouts from the old 

 wood. These shoots are usually sterile, grow vigorously, and unless 

 removed in time divert the energies of the vine from the fruit and 

 fruit shoots. Two or three times during the spring the vineyard should 

 be gone over carefully and all sterile shoots which are not needed to 

 balance the vine or to replace weak or missing arms should be removed. 

 This removal of shoots should be done in such a way that no shoot 

 longer than 12 inches is ever removed. If the watersprouts are allowed 

 to grow large their removal weakens the vine. The shoots which are 

 to give fruit canes for the following year should not be topped. The 

 shoots from the horizontal fruit canes on the trellises, however, will set 

 their fruit better and are less likely to be broken by the wind if they 

 are pinched or topped early. 



SUMMER PRUNING AND SUCKERING 



Summer pruning or topping of bearing vines is usually practiced. 

 Some follow the pinching process, by which the terminal of the grow- 

 ing cane is nipped off with the thumb and ringer when it has grown 

 out about two feet. Others wait longer and then slash off the ends of 

 the canes with a sickle. The tendency is to leave summer pruning until 

 too late and to slash off wood indiscriminately, to the injury of the vine. 

 Summer pruning, if done early enough, and this would be while the 

 growth is still soft at the point of removal, will induce the growth of 

 laterals and will shade and improve the fruit, and at the same time 

 thicken the growth of the main cane and strengthen its connection 

 with the spur. Slashing of canes too late in the season deprives the 

 fruit of the service of enough leaf surface for the elaboration of the 

 sap, often seriously checks the growth of the vine, and in hot regions, 

 induces sunburn. The first summer pruning should be done soon after 

 the bloom, but not during blooming. The second could take place 

 whenever the canes or laterals extend beyond the length necessary to 

 shade the grapes. 



Suckering is an important process and usually has to be attended to 

 at least twice in the season. It consists in removing all shoots from 

 old wood which are not provided for at the previous winter pruning. 

 The growth of these suckers takes sap which should go to the other 

 canes. All such shoots should be rubbed or pulled off while they are 

 still soft ; if a sucker puts out at a point where it would be desirable to 

 have a spur to balance the head of the vine, it should of course be 

 allowed to grow, to be cut back to two buds the following winter. By 

 such selection of suckers new spurs are secured to replace old and 

 failing ones. 



GENERAL NOTES ON PRUNING 



Longer or shorter pruning produces effects not only upon the 

 amount of early ripening of the fruit of certain varieties, but upon 

 quality, as shown in the wines. Such effects have to be discerned by 

 local observation. 



