CULTURE OF VINES IN PUTS. 
o36 
ARTICLE II. 
ON THE CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS, 
BY MR. I. SMITH, SNELSON GARDENS, NEAR ASHBOURNE. 
Having been solicited to make a remark or two upon the culture of 
Vines in Pots, as a fellow-labourer in the vineyard, if I can be of 
any service by casting my mite into the treasury, I will do it with 
pleasure. What I have to state is not to contradict what has already 
been observed by your senior correspondents, but merely to coiTobo- 
rate their testimony. Those Avho have seen crops of grapes produced 
from small plants in small pots, will not, I am sure, easily forget it. 
I have some growing in pots under my care here, which have all the 
luxuriancy of old established Vines on the rafters, and although they 
are not yet two years old, they have, at this time, from fourteen to 
twenty bunches on each of them, which promise to be good and well 
swelled, the sorts are Black Esperion, Black Muscadine, Black 
Ellison, Black Burgundy, Verdelhoo, W'hite Sweet Water, Parsley 
Leaved. The plants were raised by Mr. Stafford, Gardener at 
Willersley Castle, near Cromford, whose superior success as a 
grape grower is generally acknowledged by most practical gardeners. 
They were sent here when under a year old, February, 1831. This 
might be considered young, but it cannot be too strongly recom¬ 
mended for all forcing departments to plant none besides young 
Vines. As regards treatment, I dont know that mine differs materi¬ 
ally from others, my pretensions rest upon the success with which I 
have met—the plants were removed into pots eleven inches diameter, 
and twelve inches deep, filled with a compost of equal parts of leaf 
soil, fresh soil, (top spit from the pasture,) manure from an old 
hotbed, and river sand, all well mixed and run through a course 
sieve, the plants, of course, were headed down to two eyes, or buds, 
and placed on the curbstone of the back bed in the vinery and pine 
stove, with a saucer or feeder under each; the best of the two shoots 
was reserved and trained to a stake five feet high, then stopped, and 
likewise the side shoots through the summer. They were watered 
about every [other day with soft aired water, allowing plei^ty of air 
every sunny day. They were kept in the house until the wood be¬ 
came ripe, then set out in the open air, in a sheltered situation, 
until wanted for forcing; they were brought in again for that purpose 
in January, 1832, previously pruning them down to four feet. Part 
of them are in a succession pine pit, and trained under the rafters 
over the pine plants, similar to those shewn in page 7. 
