SMALL FRUITS AND SMALL GARDENS 



The grape literally "lives by the knife." The vine, when set, is 

 pruned back to a stub of two eyes. Subsequent pruning depends upon 

 . how the vine is to be trained. If two fundamentals 



Q ^^^ kept in mind, the grape may be trained much 



as the grower wishes. These two fundamentals are: 

 (1) Grapes are borne only on shoots of the current years growth which 

 spring from canes of the previous year's growth. (2) Grapes naturally 

 produce more hunches than will ripen well in proper size of berry and 

 'bunch and m quality of fruit. Having selected the method of train- 

 ing on arbor, wall, or trellis, subsequent pruning is as follows: The 

 spring after setting remove all but the best cane, and cut this back 

 to three or four buds. The third spring the trunk of the vine should 

 be established on wire or wall, and the pruner may now lay off per- 

 manent arms from the main stem to furnish a frame from which 

 bearing shoots will grow. This third season a few bunches of grapes 

 may be allowed to mature. 



The vine is now established and subsequent pruning consists 

 almost wholly of a thinning process whereby a certain number of 

 buds are left for a crop for each season. The number of buds depends 

 on the vigor of the vine and the variety. For vigorous sorts, as 

 Concord and Delaware, from twenty to thirty buds must be left 

 each season. These are divided equally among the bearing canes, 

 ' which are usually two or four. 



The pruner may further specialize by choosing between two 

 methods of training the annual bearing shoots. These may be trained 

 upright to wires above the canes from which the shoots spring, or 

 they may be allowed to droop and hang down, instead of being tied 

 to a support. In either case, it is often necessary to pinch back these 

 shoots in midsummer to keep them within bounds, to rub off the buds 

 that start from the main vine, and to remove such shoots as are not 

 wanted for fruit-bearing. 



. Currants and gooseberries bear fruit on wood that 



Bush-^ruit^ ^^ *^° *^ three years old, after which the next two or 



three crops are the best. Pruning consists in keeping 

 this best bearing wood constantly renewed. The plants must be 

 kept open, also, that there may be plenty of air and sunshine. Prun- 

 ing these fruits, then, consists in cutting out each year all wood more 

 than four or five years old and all of the new growths except those 

 necessary to replace that which is removed. The bearing wood should 

 have all the dead and injured parts removed and should be thinned 



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