The Training and Pruning of Grapes— By John Craig 



Professor of Horticulture 

 Cornell University 



Photographs by L. H. Bailey, H. B. Fullerton, and Arthur Hewitt 



ONE of the earliest recollections of the 

 writer on grape-training matters was 

 associated with a whitewashed board fence, 

 covered or nearly covered with a luxuriant 

 vine-growth thickly interspersed with huge 

 clusters of black grapes. These grapes were 

 in the garden of one of the residents of the 

 little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The 



23. Fan system— before trimming. This system 

 is chiefly used in sections where vines have to be 

 laid down and covered in autumn 



variety was Black Hamburg. It was the 

 wonderment of the community and the 

 delight of the owner, Mr. Pafford, who was 

 then mayor of this somewhat ancient, over- 

 grown Canadian village. Think of growing 

 and ripening Black Hamburg, a hothouse 

 grape, in even the most favorable portion of 

 Ontario! Mr. Pafford selected a warm place 

 and made it warmer by cutting off the north 

 winds with a board wall. He concentrated 

 that still more by whitewashing this tight, 

 high board fence on the south side. His 

 grapes were carefully pruned so that each 

 vine should have just so many fruit-bearing 

 buds, the fruit so thinned that each cane 

 should have just so many bunches, and the 



24-25. Post training. This sysfem is satisfactory 

 only where there is plenty of heat to ripen the 

 grapes, and is best for weak-growing varieties 



berries thinned in the bunch so that all 

 could develop fully- Hamburg was not 

 the only European grape which Mr. Pafford 

 grew. Golden Chasselas and Black Muscats 

 also decorated his boundary line. Nor did 

 he stop with these. Figs in varietv were 

 grown in this wonderful garden. Exhibits 

 of these and of the grapes were made at the 

 World's Fair in 1893 and caused people 

 to open their eyes and ask questions. Mr. 

 Pafford's Hamburg grapes will live in the 

 history of that part of the country. 



Of course, it goes without saying that the 

 grapes and figs were taken from the trellis 

 in winter, laid on the ground and well 

 "happed" up with soil, forest leaves and 

 other mulching material. 



The amateur can often take advantage of 

 walls upon which to train grapes; he can 

 also use grapes for covering unsightly 

 objects. They are exceedingly tractable 

 and plastic by nature, and accommodate 

 themselves to apparently difficult situations. 

 The training of grapes is one thing. This 

 means the adopting or choosing of a certain 

 method of growing them. Whether the 

 grower shall lead out two arms at right 

 angles, and in opposite directions from the 

 upright stem, and from these direct parallel 

 upright canes; or whether he shall lead out 

 in radiating fashion several canes from the 

 base; or whether he shall lead long canes up 

 over an arbor for the purpose of completely 

 enshrouding it, are matters of training. 



The pruning of grape-vines consists in 

 cutting back the right amount of the current 

 season's growth — the amount which ex- 

 perience says a grape of a certain habit of 

 growth and certain amount of individual 

 vigor should respond to properly. The 

 pruning of grapes is a simple matter when 

 their habit of growth is understood. We 

 prune either to check or stimulate vigor, to 

 encourage fruit production, or, on the other 

 hand, to discourage it. 



The fruit of all varieties we deal with in 

 the North and East is borne on the wood 

 produced during the current year's growth, 

 and this wood springs from buds produced by 

 last year's shoots. Each bud of last year — 

 except those which come from suckers or 

 base shoots — is a promise of a fruit-bearing 

 shoot, and each shoot is a promise of from 

 two to five bunches of grapes. These 

 promises are not all fulfilled, but they are 

 realized in proportion as the grape is healthy 

 and the season favorable. It is, then, not 

 difficult on a five- or six-year-old grape-vine 

 to estimate with a fair degree of accuracy 

 how many bunches of fruit we may have if 

 we prune to leave fifteen or twenty fruit- 

 bearing buds. With this general proposi- 

 tion in mind, the pruning of the grape is 

 not difficult. 



The purposes of training, on the other 

 hand, are to dispose the grape suitably so 

 that it may ripen its fruit evenly and well. 

 The amateur can afford to train as his 

 fancv dictates. The commercial grower must 

 18 



train to suit his climate, soil, varieties, and 

 the kind of labor which he is obliged to 

 employ. In either case, the object is to pro- 

 duce the approximate number of fruit-bearing 

 shoots the vigor of the variety suggests that 

 it should carry for the best results. 



The "fan system" is used most freely 

 where vines are protected in the autumn by 



26. Fan system — after trimming. The vine should 

 not be allowed to bear the second year after setting, 

 and only a small crop during the third year 



laying them down and covering them with 

 soil. The canes are carried up from the 

 ground in a divergent manner, in the form 

 of a fan. The old canes are cut out and 

 removed from time to time as they grow too 

 rigid to allow of easy bending. At the 

 close of the growing season, after the leaves 

 have fallen, the greater number of the 

 canes are cut back to the last bud. A few 

 of the strongest are left, in order to carry the 

 fruit to a greater height upon the trellis. 



There is a tendency on the part of the 

 grower who prunes after this fashion to 

 allow too much wood to remain on the plant 

 in the autumn, especially when it is young. 

 The vine should not be allowed to bear the 

 second year after setting out, and only a 

 small crop the third year. I realize that 

 instructions of this kind are much easier 

 given than understood and carried out. A 

 heavy crop of fruit borne by young vines the 

 third year after planting will sometimes 

 ruin the yield for two or three succeeding 

 years, and occasionally destroy the vines. 

 The prospective crop may be more or less 

 accurately estimated by multiplying the num- 

 ber of buds by two ; this kind of estimate may 

 be used as a guide in pruning. The fan 

 system aims at starting the canes near the 

 ground, giving the vine practically several 

 main stems. 



The " high renewal " system, or modifica- 

 tions of it, is probably more generally 

 adopted throughout commercial grape sec- 

 tions than any other. It aims at starting 

 the head about two feet from the ground, so 

 that the main branches are tied to the lower 

 wire. The vine is usually started the second 

 year with two canes striking out in Y-shaped 

 fashion. In the fall of the same year all 

 side shoots are cut back closely and the 

 main canes cut back to four or five buds 

 each. The third season, three or four of 



