Pruning Grapes the Year Round -By Mian Burroughs, 



DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO METHODS OF CONTROL FOR THE AMATEUR WHO 

 WISHES TO GROW GRAPES FOR QUALITY RATHER THAN FOR QUANTITY 



New 

 York 





SOUR grapes hang high in reality as well 

 as in fable — from the very fact of 

 their hanging so high they must have been 

 improperly pruned and consequently sour. 

 Whenever I am asked to prune some grape 

 vines, whether it is on some city-yard per- 

 gola or the few vines of an outlying 

 farm, nearly always I find too much wood 

 and a complete disregard for the prin- 

 ciples of grape pruning. You may culti- 

 vate, spray, and fertilize, but unless pruning 

 is attended to properly the grapes are 

 pretty sure to lack in size, flavor, color, 

 and aroma. 



To begin with, do not be afraid to ruth- 

 lessly cut away the old wood. Remember 

 that the fruit is always born close in on the 

 season's growth which in turn — and mark 

 this, for it is the keystone of pruning grapes 

 — grows from the wood of the year before. 

 Therefore we have a one-two rotation of 

 grape wood, and except for the main stalk 

 up from the ground no wood should be left 

 on the vine longer than two seasons. In the 

 commercial vineyards at least nine-tenths of 

 all the wood is cut off every December. On 

 arbors, trellises and pergolas, because of 

 the utter confusion, it is rather hard to carry 

 out this principle to the letter. Even in 

 such cases it is well to try to establish a 

 regular rotation and system — say a sym- 

 metrical series of main stalks, branched or 

 spreading, that are permanent and from 

 which the one-two order can be grown and 

 cut back every year just as done in the 

 Kniffin system. 



The "two- arm" form of the Kniffin 

 system is the best and simplest way of grow- 

 ing grapes and has been adopted by nearly 

 all the commercial growers east of the 

 Mississippi. It not only gets results in the 

 fruit but it is impossible to think of anything 

 more simple; it holds the grapes up out of 

 reach of chickens, ducks, and geese, enabling 

 one to grow grapes in a hen yard; it makes 

 spraying easy and complete; it reduces the 

 summer pruning to almost nothing; and 

 permits the growing of small fruits and 

 vegetables under the rows of grapes, thus 

 permitting the grower to make double use 

 of his ground. This ideal system is well 

 shown in the accompanying photographs; 

 it consists of one main or permanent stalk 

 tied to a wire six feet from the ground which, 

 in turn, is held up by solid posts of wood or 

 concrete. On this wire, like the outstretched 

 arms of a man, are tied the two eight- 

 bud arms. These arms are grown new 

 and are entirely cut away every year, 

 their place being taken by two new arms, 

 the ones that come out nearest the main 

 Stalk. 



Around the year with this system would be: 

 In December (or now) trim as directed above, 

 dropping the old wood on the ground where 

 it can be dragged into heaps and burned, the 



Before trimming. The ends of the canes were bent 

 down and tied to a lower wire; it is better to tie 

 to one wire 



After trimming. The two new arms are always of 

 the season's growth. Leave to 8 or 10 buds 



ashes being put back under the vines; in 

 April securely tie the new arms to the wire, 

 yet do not tie so tightly that room is not left 

 for the season's growth — otherwise as the 

 arms grow the string will girdle them; in 

 May rub off the buds or suckers that come 

 out on the main stalk; in June, and again in 

 July, lightly untangle the new shoots, making 

 them hang down freely like the ribs of an 

 umbrella. Do not do this while the vines 

 are in bloom. In later July "scissor off" 

 the surplus bunches of grapes. 



No specific directions can be given for this, 

 so much depends on circumstances. One 

 infallable rule can be given, however, and 

 that is that grapes, once they begin to 

 ripen, should continue to mature rapidly 

 and all the bunches on the vine should 

 be ripe within at least two weeks from 

 the time the first one is fairly started. If 

 they do not do this, but drag along in a sour, 

 semi-colored condition you know at once 

 that you have too many grapes on the vine 

 and some of them, the greenest, should be 

 dropped at once. If you do not do this the 

 vine cannot ripen its wood and that means 

 an injured vine and probably no grapes next 

 year. Count the bunches on one or two 

 average vines, write it down and next July 

 "scissor off" down to that number. It is 

 best to cut off too many rather than too few; 

 remember that the bunches left on will in 

 a large measure make up in size, and con- 

 sequently in beauty and flavor, for those 



dropped in July. The advantages of an 

 early scissoring off is at once apparent. 



As an example of this let me mention the 

 Green Mountain or Winchell, a very early 

 and very sweet grape. If allowed to over- 

 load, the fruit will very often remain bitter 

 and hard until killed by frost. The Camp- 

 bell Early, a very good home grape, when 

 grown on rich soil, will invariably overload 

 and often three-fourths of the bunches have 

 to be dropped. 



Now this summer budding, pruning, and 

 scissoring off is not only a part of grape 

 pruning, but it has a vital connection with the 

 winter pruning in that, unless it is done, the 

 vine cannot ripen its grapes in time to ripen 

 the wood before frost, in which latter case 

 the winter trimming is a farce and growing 

 fine grapes an impossibility. Better do 

 your pruning yourself than let Jack Frost 

 do it for you. A grape vine can only ripen a 

 given amount of grapes in a period of years. 

 Since it will often try to ripen them all in one 

 year with disastrous results, we must restrain 

 it. This is especially true of the fine 

 varieties. 



Where grapes are not grown on the two- 

 arm system, but are grown on arbors or 

 trellises, the summer pruning requires more 

 attention. The reason for this is that in the 

 two-arm system the new shoots hang down 

 naturally with the result that they make no 

 undue growth, whereas on arbors or walls 

 the season's growth, unless pinched back, 

 will attain such length that only very inferior 

 and straggly grapes are produced. It is 

 necessary, therefore, in such cases to pinch 

 off the ends of all shoots that do not hang 

 down freely, not letting them attain a length 

 of more than four or five feet. Often the 

 seconds or laterals that come out behind 

 each leaf have to be cut out or pinched back 

 in turn. In short, the wood-producing pro- 

 pensity must be curbed, throwing the strength 

 of the vine into the fruit, without, on the other 

 hand, crippling the vine or so reducing its 

 foliage that ripening is retarded. The leaves 

 of a grape are its lungs and a full, healthy 

 foliage means high-colored and sweet fruit. 



Though grapes can be grown on any sweet, 

 well drained soil, there are two things that 

 interfere seriously and make it hard to pro- 

 duce fine grapes: the sod under the vines and 

 large shade trees near-by. 



The 2-8-1 o fertilizer is about the best for 

 grapes. Wood ashes are excellent, but 

 stable manure alone without potash in 

 some form is not sufficient. Campbell 

 Early, however, must have either manure or 

 some green legume plowed under. Watch 

 the green wood, and if it does not ripen up 

 along with or very soon after the fruit, apply 

 more fertilizer rich in potash and phosphoric 

 acid the next spring. "Ripen the wood" 

 — on that depends proper pruning, on which 

 depends the quality of your grapes. 



