May, 1906 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



221 



Heel the plants into soil as soon as re- 

 ceived from the nursery. If possible, plant 

 on a cloudy day or in the cool of early even- 

 ing. The hole should be dug as broad and 

 deep as if a large three-year-old apple tree 

 were to be planted, instead of a small grape 

 vine, one year old from the cutting. Mound 

 up the dirt into a cone in the bottom of the 

 hole so the roots will hang down over it 

 naturally. Cut back the top to three or 

 four strong buds, and trim in the roots 

 slightly. Use rich dirt around the roots. 

 Plant firmly. When the soil is leveled off 

 the buds should be above ground. If plant- 

 ing in the fall, which is rarely advisable, 

 mulch the plant with strawy manure. This 

 is a good plan after spring planting, also. 



CARE THE FIRST SEASON 



Force all growth into one cane; keep 

 all suckers from the roots rubbed off, and 

 nip off the ends of side shoots that would 

 deflect growth from the main cane. The 

 first season is the most important in the 

 growth of the vines. In most systems of 

 training the vine is cut back to three or four 

 strong buds at the end of the first season. 



TRAINING AND PRUNING 



Grapes are pruned to reduce the amount 

 of wood, so that the quantity of fruit borne 

 will be limited, and also to keep the vines in 

 a small space, so that they can be managed 

 easily. All methods of training seek to 

 hang the vines up in the air and sunshine, so 

 that the fruit may ripen well. A novice will 

 not go far astray if he remembers that fact. 

 The fruit is borne only on shoots of the 

 present season, which develop from buds 

 borne on the shoots of last season. From 

 each of the large, brown winter buds may 

 come a shoot from one to several feet in 

 length, bearing from one to four bunches of 

 grapes. Only the largest and strongest of 

 these winter buds have in them the possibili- 

 ties of grapes; the weaker ones become shoots. 



Vines of our common native varieties, 

 over four years old should bear only from 

 twenty-five to fifty clusters. This means 

 that there will be left on the vine after prun- 

 ing from twelve to twenty-five strong buds. 

 The most common mistake of amateurs is to 

 allow the vines to retain too much bearing 

 wood, so that there is a waste of energy in 

 producing a large number of very small 



A two-year-old and one-year-old plant of Concord. 

 The two-year-old plant will give quicKer results, but 

 the one-yetr-old plant will be more HKely to live, 

 since it has more roots 



Make the hole at least deep enough to accommo- 

 date the roots when they are extended downward. 

 Let the top of the original cutting appear just above 

 the ground. Spread out the roots naturally and 

 filter dirt over and between them with the tingsrs 



Prune in this way before planting 



bunches. Do not hesitate to cut off two- 

 thirds of the vine, if this is necessary to give 

 it a reasonable amount of bearing surface. 



The aim of the grape pruner should be to 

 get as much bearing wood as possible in the 

 smallest space. This means that there 

 must be some method of securing, from time 

 to time, new canes from near the base. 



The Vertical Trellis is the most common 

 method of training. It need not be erected 

 until the second season. The posts should 

 be of the most durable wood obtainable, 

 about 8 feet long, 6 to 8 inches thick, 

 and the ends that are to go in the ground 



should be charred or tarred. These pre- 

 cautions will save much vexation from rotten 

 posts, which are apt to give way when the 

 vines are laden with fruit. The end posts 

 of a row should be braced on the inside with 

 a 2 x 4 scantling about 8 feet long, one end 

 fitting into a notch in the post and the other 

 against a wooden stub in the ground. Put 

 one post to every three vines or ordinarily 

 about 26 feet apart. Set them at least 18 

 inches deep. Make a perfectly straight 

 row; the wire will stretch easier. Plant the 

 vines on the lee side. One, two, or three 

 wires may be used. The three-wire trellis 

 is most common, the wires being placed 

 about 24, 36, and 48 inches from the ground, 

 respectively. 



The vines are distributed over a vertical 

 trellis chiefly in two ways — by the renewal 

 system and by the spur system. The re- 

 newal system is especially valuable for 

 strong-growing varieties of the Concord type. 

 It is one of the simplest to practise and since 

 it usually gives a high grade of fruit, it is 

 especially desirable for the amateur, partic- 

 ularly in the North and East. Renewal 

 may be by single-arm, or double-arm, method. 



In the first method but one wire is needed. 

 A single cane is trained to the wire the 

 second year, and is tied there making the 

 trunk. The next year a single cane is al- 

 lowed to grow from near the top of this 

 trunk, to a length of 8 to 10 feet, when it is 

 checked. All the canes on a row of vines 

 are trained the same direction. The follow- 

 ing year, while this cane bears fruit, another 

 long cane is started from nearly opposite the 

 first and in the opposite direction. At the 

 end of the season the cane that has borne 

 fruit is cut off completely at the head, leaving 

 but one cane which will bear fruit the next 

 year. Subsequent training and pruning is a 

 repetition of that of the fourth year. The 

 single-arm renewal system gives a limited 

 amount of very choice fruit. 



More fruit is secured from the double-arm 

 renewal, which is exactly similar to the 

 preceding, except that two new canes are 

 grown each year instead of one, so that two 

 canes fruit each year. It is necessary to use 

 at least two wires in this system. The two 

 new canes are trained one each way, on the 

 lower wire; they are carried to the upper 



The vertical trellis with vines pruned on the four 

 arm spur system. In pruning the drooping shoots 

 will be cut back to one or two buds which will_send 

 out bearing shoots next year 



