20 
House & Garden 
f 
The grape arbor is an inheritance from our ancestors. The above system of growing 
is the prettiest although the least productive method. When proper pruning is done 
the yield will be satisfactory enough for home plantings 
shortening, new shoots 
began to develop from 
the lower angles of the 
leaf stems. For a time 
these were shortened so 
as to leave only one joint 
of stem and one leaf, but 
later in the season as 
they became more and 
more numerous they were 
allowed to grow at will. 
This pinching of laterals 
as it is called is not an 
essential feature of sum¬ 
mer pruning, though it 
is thought to improve 
both the size and the 
(juality of the fruit. 
Making the Trellis 
In the spring of 1918 
as soon as frost was out 
of the ground, 9' locust 
]iosts for a pennanent 
trellis were set about 20' 
apart, not close to but 
away from the vines, and 
deep enough in the soil 
to be below the frost line 
—about 36". As the 
vines were not e.xpected 
to grow very large that 
season only one Number 
1 wire was stretched be¬ 
tween posts. It passed 
through small holes 
bored through the middle 
of each post about 6" 
below the top. One end 
of the wire was fastened 
securely to an end post; 
the other, after passing 
through the hole, was 
merel}’ wound around a 
square piece of wood so 
it coukl be tightened in 
the summer and loosened 
in the winter. The former is important 
to take up the slack when it expands 
during warm weather, the latter to pre¬ 
vent the posts being pulled out of plumb 
by the contraction of the wire in cold 
weather. Patent trellis wire stretchers 
may be bought, but the device mentioned 
was found to be satisfactory and it had 
the further merit of costing nothing. 
Dangers of Tight Tying 
A stout cord long enough to reach the 
ground was tied to the wire aljove each 
vine for the growing shoots to climb on. 
Here a serious mistake occurred; my 
friend tied the lower end of each cord 
to the vine instead of fastening it to a 
peg in the ground. I'he result was that 
before the damage was discovered two 
of the vines were strangled because the 
loop of cord did not "give” with the 
growth in girth of the vine. One of 
these vines developed no shoots above 
the constriction in 1919; the other grew 
but suddenl}- failed above the girdle in 
midsummer when it was carrying 126 
clusters of half developed grapes. If 
these two vines had matured their fruit 
twelve of the sixteen originally planted 
would have borne in 1919. As it was, 
the ten that did bear yielded from ten to 
thirty pounds of grapes each, a total of 
over 150 pounds. The four others that 
failed to l)ear that year were checked by 
Bagging grapes is one of the ways of improving the 
quality of the yield. The bags protect the fruit 
from the attacks of insects 
having been planted in 
far poorer soil than the 
others and having made 
a stunted growth in con- 
secjuence. 
Pruning and Training 
Shortly before the first 
of March, 1919, prun¬ 
ing was done. All puny 
shoots were cut off en¬ 
tirely and the sturdy 
low'er ones shortened to 
one or two buds at most. 
Two of the uppermost 
long shoots on each vine 
were extended along and 
tied to the wire already 
in place. In some cases 
these “canes” or “arms” 
as they are variously 
called, were shortened to 
half a dozen joints, each 
joint with a stout bud; 
in others only one or two 
joints were left, depend¬ 
ing upon the character 
of growth—few for weak 
growths, more for strong 
ones. 
After the canes had 
l)een tied securely to the 
wire a cross piece of 2" 
X 4" scantling 24" long 
was spiked on top of 
each post so as to form 
a T. .^bout 1" from 
each end of the cross 
pieces a small notch was 
cut with a saw and a 
Number 11 wire stretched 
from end to end of 
the trellis through them, 
thus making three wires, 
the two outer ones being 
6" or 8" higher than the 
first or lowest one. These 
wires were fastened tight at one end, 
loose at the other, like the first wire which 
was ])ut up. 
The method of training I have been 
describing is often called the canopy sys¬ 
tem, because the vines hang down from 
the outer and upper wires. IMore gen¬ 
erally, however, it is called the Munson 
system after its originator, the late T. V. 
IMunson of Texas, celebrated as an orig¬ 
inator of grape varieties. It is specially 
adapted to amateur uses because it per¬ 
mits the growing of currants, gooseberries 
and other bush fruits Ireneath and 
alternately with the grape vines. To 
some extent it is also used in commercial 
growing. 
Trellises 
More popular trellises have two or 
three wires, one above another, the lowest 
being usually about 24" from the ground, 
the top one djA’ or 5' and the middle 
one, when there is one, half or two-thirds 
of the way between. Grapes are also 
readily trained to stakes over summer¬ 
houses and arbors and even allowed to 
sprawl and wander over brush piles and 
up in trees. Generally the trellises give 
the greatest satisfaction, though by judi¬ 
cious management fairly good results are 
often secured upon arljors and summer¬ 
houses. 
Success in growing fine grapes, as in 
