468 



GROWING THE GRAPE ON OPEN WALLS, 



has set till it begins to ripen. The width of the projecting part of the 

 coping Mr. Hoare regulates by the height of the wall and its aspect. " If 

 the height be less than four feet, and the aspect south, the coping ought not 

 to project at all, as the light and solar heat excluded by it will be a serious 

 drawback on the healthy vegetation of the vines. But if the wall be four 

 feet high, then the coping may project as many inches ; and if this width 

 be increased an inch for every foot that the wall increases in height up to 

 twelve feet, the principal advantages arising from the protection which a 

 coping affords will be secured, in conjunction with the smallest portion of its 

 disadvantages," (p. 73.) If the aspect be east or west, the coping must be 

 as narrow as possible, as every inch of projection in these aspects causes a 

 considerable diminution in the duration of sunshine on the face of the wall. 

 At the same time a coping that projects less than four inches is calculated 

 to do more harm than good, as the drip will fall on the blossoms and the 

 fruit. Movable wooden copings (463 and 471) produce, Mr. Hoare 

 observes, all the benefit of fixed copings, without any of their disadvantages. 

 All garden walls whatever should have iron brackets built in immediately 

 under the stone coping, in order to admit of temporary wooden copings 

 being applied at pleasure. Temporary copings should be applied, from 

 the 21st of March to the middle of May, to protect the young shoots, from 

 the first expanding of the buds until the berries are well set; and again from 

 the berries showing symptoms of ripening till the fruit be all cut from the 

 vines. 



981. Propagation. — Mr. Hoare prefers cuttings containing two buds taken 

 off in autumn, and planted in spring in the open garden, and sometimes 

 where they are finally to remain. The uppermost bud of the cutting 

 must have an inch of the blank wood remaining beyond it, and the lower 

 end must be cut transversely, just below the bud. Bury the upper bud 

 about a quarter of an inch, and press the soil quite firm to the lower one. 

 Keep the soil moist by soap-suds or liquid manure. 



982. Pruning. — Mr. Hoare, as we have already seen (962), gives a 

 decided preference to the long system of pruning ; his objections to the 

 other modes being founded on the quantity of proper juice required annually 

 to clothe the naked old wood with a new concentric layer of alburnum, 

 thereby lessening the quantity of juice sent down to the roots. Naked vine 

 branches are consumers, but not producers ; therefore the grand object of 

 pruning should be to leave a sufficient supply of bearing-shoots on the least 

 possible proportionate quantity of old wood. Tried by this test, the long 

 method will be found preferable to all others. Prune as soon after the 1 st 

 of October as the gathering of the fruit will admit ; and never prune in 

 March, April, or May. 



983. Training. — From a main stem, one horizontal shoot to the right 

 and another to the left, are maintained of a sufficient length to produce all 

 the bearing wood required for the age of the vine, the height of the wall, 

 &c. These shoots are laid in about a foot above the surface of the soil, 

 and the vertical shoots which proceed from them are trained in a serpentine 

 form, to check the too rapid ascent of the sap. " If a summer shoot, every 

 time it is nailed throughout the season, be bent or pointed in a different 

 direction to that in which it grew at the preceding nailing, the vigour of its 

 growth will be checked, and the sap will immediately accumulate and 

 expend itself in forming round, short-jointed wood, and in the development 



