260 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



downwards, through the border. The turf system (Fig. 74, X, page 245) prevents 

 a corkscrew formation, secures abundance of fibrous roots, communicating by direct 

 channels with the stem, instead of nourishment having to reach it by tortuous routes, 

 as when the roots are spiral. 



Ripened canes of home-raised vines may be planted in September ; those from a 

 nursery in October. Such, with the leaves ripening, take to the soil at once, and push 

 adventitious roots ready to transmit nourishment directly the buds start the following 

 season. If planting cannot be performed before the leaves fail in the autumn, it is 

 better to defer it until spring than to plant in mid- winter. Indoor planting may be 

 practised from the end of January to April, according to the time of starting the vines ; 

 but it is not wise to plant in an outside border with the ground at a temperature of 38 

 to 45, and introduce the canes into a minimum heat of 55. The better system is to 

 wait until the outside border has a temperature favourable to the vines rooting, and that 

 is easily ascertained by plunging the pots in the soil where the vines are to be planted, 

 and when the buds commence swelling it is certain that there is a reciprocal action 

 between the part above ground and the roots. The vines may then be planted. 



The canes should be procured and shortened to the required length before January, 

 for they cannot be safely pruned much later. Shortening, however, is sometimes delayed 

 from unavoidable causes, and bleeding ensues when the sap rises. This may be averted 

 by dressing the cuts, when dry, with painters' " knotting," and it can be arrested by 

 allowing the temperature to fall as low at night as is safe, which causes the sap to 

 recede, when the wounds should be wiped dry, and well dressed with " best French 

 polish." Whatever sap afterwards exudes thickens and closes the pores of the wood. 

 When shortening has been postponed until planting time, it is a good plan to plant with 

 the cane entire, and when growth has taken place to the extent of a leaf or two, com- 

 mence disbudding the upper part, and gradually down to the shoot or shoots it is wished 

 to retain, ultimately cutting the useless part of the cane away, as there is no danger of 

 bleeding when the vine has foliage to utilise the sap. 



Young vines with ripened canes should have the soil shaken away, or, when this 

 cannot be done without bringing some roots away also, the ball should be soaked in 

 tepid water, the soil washed away, and the roots carefully disentangled. A plant- 

 ing vine, as grown and prepared for planting by Mr. D. Thomson, is shown in the 

 engraving, from a photograph, Fig. 77, see preceding page. 



Attention is particularly directed to the fibrous root system, the number of feeders 



