Pruning. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Pruning. 47 



No grape-vine, however trained and appar- 

 ently strong, should ever be allowed to carry 

 more fruit than it can bring to perfect 

 maturity and at the same time produce 

 healthy and well-ripened canes for the next 

 season's liearing. Over-bearing is always at- 

 tended with unfortunate results, saj^s Geo. W. 

 Campbell — and there is no better teacher of 

 grape culture living; — from this cause the 

 healthiest vine ma}- be so enfeebled as to be 

 destroyed by any unusual severit}^ the follow- 

 ing winter ; or, when the injury is not so seri- 

 ous, the vine may bear a light inferior crop 

 the following j'ear, but remain weak forever. 



In order to secure future fruitfulness of 

 the vine, and at the same time to keep it in 

 our convenient control, we should allow no 

 more wood to grow than we need for next 

 season's bearing, and for this purpose we re- 

 sort to sprhig prnnhig, generally, though im- 

 properly, called 



SUM.^IER PRUNING. 



The time to perform the first summer prun- 

 ing is when the young shoots are about six 

 inches long, and when you can plainly see all 

 the small bunches — the embryo fruit. We 

 commence at the two lower spurs, having two 

 buds each, and both started. One of them 

 we intend for a bearing cane next summer, 

 therefore allow it for the present to grow 

 vjichecked, tjdng it, if long enough, to the 

 lowe-t wire. The other, wiiich we intend for 

 a spur again next fall, we pinch with the 

 thumb and finger to just beyond the last 

 bunch or Ijutton, taking out the leader be- 

 tween the last bunch and the next leaf, as 

 shown in Fig. 72, the cross line indicating 



^1h^_ 



Fig. 72. 



where the leader is to be pinched off. We 

 now come to the next spur, on the opposite 

 side, where we also leave one cane to grow 

 unchecked, and pinch off the other. 



We now go over all the shoots coming from 

 the arms or laterals tied to the trellis, and 

 also pinch them beyond the last bunch. 



Should any of the buds have pushed out two 

 shoots, we rub off the weakest ; we also take 

 off all the barren or weak shoots which may 

 have started from the foot of the vine. 



The bearing branches having all been 

 pinched back, we can leave our vines alone 

 until after the bloom, onl}; tying up the young 

 canes from the spurs, should it become neces- 

 sary. Do not, however, tie them over the 

 bearing canes, but lead them to the empty 

 space on both sides of the vine, as our object 

 must be to give the fruit all the air and light 

 we can without depriving it of the necessary 

 foliage, which is of greatest importance for 

 the formation of sugar in the berries. To do 

 so the leaves must be well developed and 

 healthy. Diseased, mildewed foliage, how- 

 ever, will not promote the sugar formation, 

 but rather impede the same. 



B}' the time the grapes have bloomed, the 

 laterals will have pushed from the axils of the 

 leaves on the bearing shoots. Now go over 

 these again, and pinch each lateral back to 

 one leaf, as shown in Fig. 73. In a short 

 time the laterals on the fruit-bearing branches 

 which have been pinched, will throw out 

 suckers again. These are again stopped, 

 leading one leaf of the 3'Oung growth. Leave 

 the laterals on the canes intended for next 

 3^ear's fruiting to grow unchecked, tying 

 them neatly to the wires with bass or pawpaw 

 bark, or with rye straw. 



If you prefer training your vines on the 

 horizontal arm system (Fig. 71) the mode of 

 summer pruning will in the main be the same. 

 Pinch off the end of each upright shoot <is 

 soon as it has made two leaves beyond the 

 last bunch of fruit ; the shoots after being 

 stopped will soon start, and after growing a 

 few inches should be stopped again, as we 

 wish to keejy them within the limits of the 

 trellis, and the laterals should be stopped be- 

 yond its first leaf. Thus we try to keep the 

 vine equally balanced in fruit, foliage and 

 wood. It will be perceived that fall pruning, 

 or shortening-in the ripened wood of the vine, 

 and summer pruning, shortening-in and thin- 

 ning out of the 3'oung growth, have one and 

 the same object in view, namely, to keep the 

 vine in proper bounds, and concentrate all 

 its energies for a two fold ol)ject, namely, the 

 production and rij)ening of the most perfect 

 fruit, and the production of strong, healthy 

 wood for the coming season's crop. Both 

 operations, in fact, are only different parts 

 of one and the same system, of which summer 

 pruning is the prejDaratory, and fall pruning 

 the finishing part ; but while the vine will 

 bear, without ai)parent injur}', any reasonable 

 amount of pruning during its dormant state, 

 in the fall or winter, an}' severe cutting 



