cultivating t7ie Vine in Pots. 139 



coll. This shoot may be 2 or 3 ft. long ; and, to keep it steady, 

 it may be tied to a stake, or coiled round two or three stakes. 

 After this, fill up the pot with a rich loamy soil, pressing it 

 firmly against the coil, as if you were making firm the end of a 

 cutting. Unless this is done in such a manner as to bring every 

 part of the coil in close contact with the soil, it will not root so 

 readily as it otherwise would do. The next operation is, to 

 wrap up all that part of the stem which is above the pot with 

 moss, and this moss must be kept constantly moist till the grapes 

 are formed. The pot should now be plunged in bottom heat, 

 either in a pit or forcing-house ; but, wherever it is plunged, 

 care must be taken to regulate the temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere of the house, in such a manner as to prevent the top of 

 the vine from being excited before the roots. If this should 

 happen, the young shoots produced will soon wither for want of 

 nourishment. Abundance of air, therefore, should be given for 

 several weeks, so as never to allow the temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere of the house, frame, or pit, to exceed 45° or 50°, while the 

 temperature of the medium in which the pots are plunged may be 

 as high as 65° or 70°. When, by examination, you find that fibres 

 are protruded from the coil, the temperature of the atmosphere 

 may then be gradually raised, when the buds will break, and 

 the shoots will grow apace. 



The shoots proceeding from that part of the stem above the 

 pot should be led up to within 8 or 10 in. of the glass, and there 

 trained, at that distance from it, towards the back of the pit or 

 house. It is needless to state to the practical gardener, that 

 each shoot will require to be shortened, freed from laterals, &c. 

 Each vine will produce from three to twenty or more bunches, 

 according to the length of coil and variety of grape. I have 

 now (Jan. 17. 1834) upwards of 200 coiled branches in pots, 

 and nearly fifty of them in action ; some with twenty bunches 

 of fine grapes on them. 



I was asked the other day, whether vines so treated would not 

 require frequent shiftings into larger pots ; or, at least, to be 

 shifted once a year. To this I answered, that while we had a 

 plentiful supply of prunings from our own vines, or could pro- 

 cure them from those of our friends, the best mode would be to 

 treat the plants, after they had borne one crop, as we do the 

 roots of asparagus and other plants that we force ; that is, to 

 throw them away. If, however, you should wish to keep the 

 coiled plants a second year, and the pots should be found to be 

 too full of roots, turn out the ball, shake the soil from the coil, 

 and cut away all the roots close to the shoot ; then repot it as 

 before. If this be done in winter, the plant will produce an 

 excellent crop the following season ; probably a better one than 

 if the roots were allowed to remain, and the ball shifted into a 



