SPECIAL THINGS NEEDED BY FRUITS 



in a season or two. Plow the land, use dynamite to dig the 

 holes, and have a clearance inside the hole of at least twenty 

 inches. After-cultivation should be complete and continuous, 

 stopping each year only in time to ripen the wood and fruit 

 early in fall. Mulch systems do not succeed with grapes. 



Use one-year vines if you can get them, though two-year 

 vines are nearly as good. Cut the little vines back to three or four 

 buds, cut the roots back to ten inches in length, and then plant 

 deeply, as early as possible in the spring. You can hardly get 

 grapes too deep within reason. These newly planted vines 

 should be mulched heavily with straw and manure, for two 

 feet about the vine. They require lots of nitrogen, which the 

 mulch will supply while it is saving moisture. Add whatever 

 commercial fertilizer the vines may lack, as indicated in the 

 chapter on feeding plants. For the first season, the canes may 

 be tied to stakes, or allowed to run on the ground. After 

 that they should be trained on trellises, to make easy the 

 spraying, cultivation and picking. 



For home trellises, use the form you like or can get best. 

 In field vineyards, the form most widely used consists of posts 

 six feet high, on which are three wires one at the top, and the 

 others below, about eighteen inches apart. A better way; in 

 our opinion, is to put a cross arm on the post, about five leet 

 from the ground, and string the three wires on this, one at 

 each end, and one in the middle. Train the leaders of the vine 

 up the post, in either case, then let the side branches grow out 

 on each wire, in both directions, half-way to the next vine. 



The pruning of grape-vines has to be understood before it 

 can be done with any satisfaction or good results. At the same 

 time, a vine will not grow nor bear as it should if it is not pruned, 

 and if it is not pruned right. Grapes are borne on new wood 

 (of the same season's growth), and these shoots spring from 

 buds on wood of the last year's growth. This applies to all 

 American (so called) varieties, but not to the European or 

 Scuppernong kinds, which bear on shoots from two-year wood. 

 So, when we start with a new vine which has grown one summer, 

 all the shoots except one should be cut off in the next winter 

 (December to February), and this one should be cut back to 

 three or four buds. When the next growth starts, only two of 

 the strongest canes should be allowed to live, and these two 

 will form the main trunk of the vine. 



The branches that arise from these two main stems during 

 the second season will go into the winter with a good crop of 

 buds. Your two-year-old vine should bear not more than 

 ten or a dozen bunches of grapes; so, in the second winter, 

 cut off all the branches except three or four, and cut these back 

 to two or three buds each, because each bud will average two 

 bunches. In this way, thinning is done by pruning. ^This 

 principle holds good with any vine, no matter how old it is. 

 One set of roots can mature properly not more than from forty 

 to eighty bunches, depending on the kind and age. Each winter, 

 cut every vine back so that it carries only half as many buds 

 as you want bunches of grapes next season. 



