1882 .] 
VINES AND VINE CULTURE. 
149 
a 10-inch or 12-inch pot, which are called the 
fruiting pots. This size will be found quite 
large enough for all practical purposes. Plants 
that are intended to be grown on the second 
year need not be potted into larger than 5-inch 
or 8-inch pots. After the last shift, when the 
pots get well filled with roots, they should be 
liberally top-dressed from time to time, even 
raising this above the rim of the pot; this 
top-dressing will be found to get filled with 
fibry roots. 
8. As to Soil, dc .—The best light fresh fibry 
loam that can be procured should be chosen 
for the first potting, with broken charcoal, 
and a little bone dust and rotted manure; the 
rougher the condition in which it is used the 
better. The pots should be carefully and 
efficiently drained. This is a very important 
matter. For the second and third pottings 
the soil may be somewhat richer and stronger. 
Pot vines cannot be grown in poor soil. Top-' 
dressings should consist of one-half rotted 
manure mixed with the soil, and some horn 
shavings or bones. Care must be taken in 
potting to have the soil of the same temperature 
as the houses in which the plants are growing, 
and the vines should be potted in the same 
place if possible, so as to prevent any possi¬ 
bility of chill and consequent check to their 
growth, which is extremely injurious to them 
at this stage. 
4. As to Watering, dc .—Abundance of water 
is at all times necessary for growing vines ; 
they should never be allowed to become dry, 
and should be syringed overhead several times 
a-day, and the atmosphere kept continually 
charged with moisture. When the pots are 
fully charged with roots, liquid manure should 
be frequently applied. 
5. As to Temperature, Bottom Heat, dc .— 
Vine eyes on being struck should be plunged 
in a bed having a bottom heat of 80°, and an 
atmospheric temperature, if by fire-heat, of 65° 
or 70°, or if by sun-heat, it may rise to 90° or 
400°. Too much sun-heat, if the atmosphere is 
plentifully charged with moisture, can scarcely 
be secured. The same regulations as to tem¬ 
perature apply throughout the season, or 
until the vines begin to ripen. Bottom heat, 
i.e., the plunging of the pots in a heated 
medium, is not requisite when the plants 
become larger. Some cultivators, however, 
continue to maintain bottom heat in one form 
or other during the whole growing season. 
6. As to Training , Stopping, dc .—As the 
young vines grow they require to be staked, 
and to have the tendrils, lateral shoots, &c., 
pinched off as they may appear. The leading 
shoot should not be stopped until it has grown 
to the required length. Some recommend stop¬ 
ping it when about 18 inches in length, about 
the time it is fairly rooted into the 8-inch pot, 
and training up, not the first, but the second 
lateral shoot or bud that is produced as the 
stem; this stopping is believed to concen¬ 
trate more strength in the lower portion of 
the stem, but we have not found it of any 
practical utility. The young stem, although 
appearing slender when 18 inches or so in 
length, rapidly gets thicker and stronger if 
properly cared for. When the vines have ar¬ 
rived at their full length, from 6 to 8 or 10 
feet as the case may be, this being generally 
regulated by the size of the pit or structure in 
which they may be grown, they must be 
stopped, and the laterals as they appear must 
be kept closely stopped also to the first leaf 
in exactly the same manner as recommended 
for permanent vines. When the canes are 
ripened off, which may be in November, they 
should be at once pruned, that is, all the 
lateral spurs should be cut off, and the stem 
cut down to the length required from 5 to 
8 feet, according to its strength. 
7. As to Position or Situation, dc. —The 
young vines whilst growing should be kept as 
close to the glass as possible, and as they in¬ 
crease in length a good situation for them is 
along the front of a low pit or house, training 
the rods to a trellis against the roof. In this 
manner the whole of the leaves, &c., are fully ex¬ 
posed to the sun’s influence, and well-developed 
fruiting-buds are produced the entire length of 
the rod. This is why vines, well-grown “at 
home,” are often superior to nursery plants, 
because in nurseries they are mostly grown in a 
vertical position, and being necessarily thickly 
placed, plump, well-developed buds are fre¬ 
quently only produced at the top of the canes. 
8. As to Ripening the Canes .—The ordinary 
method is, towards the end of the season, 
when the vines are fully grown and show 
signs of ripening off, which they will do natur¬ 
ally, to give gradually more air and less water, 
