GRAPE VINES PREPARING FOR FORCING. 311 



be shifted from the 5-inch pot to a 7-inch directly the roots have reached the 

 bottom and sides of the pot, from this to a 9-inch, and from that into an 11 -inch pot, 

 for fruiting. 



The "cut-back" ( (7, Fig. 78, page 261) will be in a 5, 6, or 7-inch pot, as advised for 

 rearing a planting cane, page 245, and being placed in heat not later than early February, 

 it will start into growth, and should be turned out of the pot and all the soil removed 

 when the shoots are 1 to 2 inches long. Place in the same-sized pot, say a 6 or 7 -inch. 

 Kub off the weakest shoot when free growth commences. Place a stake to each vine 

 and secure the cane to it. Shift into a 9 -inch pot immediately the fresh soil is well 

 occupied with roots, and from this into an 11 or 12 -inch pot. These sizes are quite large 

 enough for the vines to fruit in. This last shift should be given early in June, never 

 later than midsummer. The potting should be compact, and the drainage thorough, say 

 an inch in depth of good-sized crocks and another inch of smaller, all clean. 



Compost. Three parts of fibrous loam rather strong and gritty, half a part of old 

 mortar rubbish, and half a part of horse-droppings. Use the loam rather rough. Add 

 to each bushel of the compost a quart of steamed bone-meal and 2 quarts of wood ashes. 

 Mix thoroughly, and use moderately moist at the same temperature as the house in which 

 the vines are growing. 



Position. Place the vines at the sides of a low pit or house, the pots as near the 

 base of the roof as is practicable, and train the canes to a trellis about a foot from the 

 glass. If this is inconvenient, and the vines must be grown upright from the stage or 

 floor to the roof, allow such distance between them as to expose every leaf down to the 

 base to the sun's influence. By the first plan fruiting-buds are formed the entire length 

 of the cane ; by the vertical training, the upper buds are strengthened at the expense of 

 the lower ones. 



Temperature. Bottom heat after the vines are placed in 5-inch pots is not necessary, 

 especially for cut-backs. Artificial temperature, 65 at night, 70 to 75 Q by day ; sun 

 heat, 80 to 85 (shaded thermometer), rising to 90 or 95 after closing. 



Ventilation. Admit a little air at 70, allow a free circulation over 75, yet do not 

 lower the temperature from sun heat through the day below 80. When the growth is 

 complete, admit air freely day and night. If the vines do not ripen kindly, keep the 

 house rather warm by day and open the ventilators fully at night. 



Watering and Moisture. Never allow the foliage to flag through lack of water at the 

 roots. Let the soil be sufficiently dry to take water freely before supplying any, then 



