Pruning and Trimming the Grapevine - Selected Articles

By Read Books Ltd.

This book contains a collection of vintage articles on managing a grapevine, with a special focus on pruning and trimming. These timeless articles have been carefully selected for a modern readership, and will be of considerable utility to farmers and gardeners with a practical interest in growing grapes. The articles include: “Theory and Practice of Pruning and Training”, “Pruning and Management”, “Trimming”, “Vine Pruning”, “Pruning Young Vines and the Sultanas”, “Pruning and Training”, and “Time to Prune, and Pruning and Training”. All of the articles have been written by experts in the field, making this both a useful handbook and a worthy addition to collections of vintage fruit growing literature. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on wine making.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Aug 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473354494

Book preview

GENERAL THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING AS APPLIED to THE GRAPE VINE.

IN the preceding chapters we have given minute directions for that particular system of pruning and training, which we believe to be best adapted to our native grapes. It is now our purpose to detail those general principles which apply to all modes of pruning and training, and to describe a few of those peculiar systems which have been founded upon them.

I. The first principle upon which all correct pruning, whether of the vine or any other tree, must be based, is that the sap always tends to the extremities of the branches.

From this, it follows that unless the balance between the roots and branches of the vine be carefully and accurately adjusted, all the lower portion of the old wood will become devoid of spurs or bearing shoots, and unless the portion of the wall or trellis over which it is trained is otherwise occupied, the space will be left practically vacant.

Experience has also shown that there is no practical limit to this law—that is, that the distance to which the sap may be propelled exceeds any limits to which it is ever necessary to carry it.

"If the shoots of the vine are trained along a considerable extent of wall, the branches spread out much wider, and the berries attain a larger size. This property of the vine, although known to experienced gardeners, is not taken advantage of as it ought to be. A vine might be trained horizontally under the coping of a wall to a great distance, and by inverting the bearing shoots, the spaces between the other fruit-trees and the top of the wall could readily be filled up, and if different vines were inarched to the horizontal branch, the south wall of a large garden might be furnished with a variety of sorts from the stem and root of a single plant, the roots of which would not encumber the border in which the other fruit-trees are growing. I have an experiment of this kind now in progress in my garden. Within a few years past, I have gradually trained bearing branches of a small black cluster grape, to the distance of near fifty feet from the root, and I find the bunches every year grow larger, and ripen earlier as the shoots continue to advance.

According to Mr. Knight’s theory of the circulalation of the sap, the ascending sap must necessarily become enriched by the nutritious particles it meets with in its progress through the vessels of the alburnum; the wood at the top of the tall trees, therefore, becomes short-jointed and full of blossom buds, and the fruit there situated attains its greatest perfection. Hence, we find pine and fir-trees loaded with the finest cones on the top boughs, the largest acorns grow on the terminal branches of the oak, and the finest mast on the high boughs of the beech and chestnut; so, likewise, apples, pears, cherries, etc., are always best flavored from the top of the tree. But I suppose there are certain limits, beyond which the sap would be so loaded with nutriment, that it could not freely circulate.

The sap being determined so powerfully to the extremities of the branches, the most unremitting attention is required upon the part of the vine dresser, so that the bearing shoots may be equally distributed along the entire plant and an equal amount of nutriment directed to each.

But if through negligent management the bearing shoots or spurs are allowed to die out on the lower part of the vine, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace them.

By judicious pruning, the entire head of the vine may be so reduced that there will be abundant nutriment for all the buds, and by promptly and carefully stopping the more vigorous shoots, the sap may be so directed to the weaker ones that no difficulty of this kind need occur.

II. In this connection, we may consider a rule—which is laid down as a principle, however, by most arboricultural authorities—the buds are developed with greater vigor upon a branch which is cut short, than upon one which is left long.

This is true, but must be accepted with limitations. If there be two shoots springing from the same stem, one being pruned short and the other long, the buds on the long branch will be developed with the greatest vigor. If, however, the shoots be upon different stems, the buds upon that which is pruned most closely will push most strongly.

This we might anticipate, from the fact that there is more root power (if we may use the expression) to a given number of buds. But experiment would lead us to believe that if the lower buds are removed so that the same number of eyes are left on both, the longest would have the advantage—at least at first.

But as sap moves with greater difficulty through old than through young wood, the shortest shoot soon overtakes its companion and outstrips it. This principle is well exemplified in the rampant growth of those suckers which spring from old vines near the ground. They will frequently grow twenty or thirty feet in a season, while the strongest shoots at the extremities of the old branches do not exceed from five to eight.

Upon these principles is founded the rule which directs us to cut back plants which have made a weak growth, or have become old, gnarled and hard, so that they may throw up strong, vigorous shoots.

III. The sap supplied by the roots must be elaborated by the leaves, before it is fitted for the formation of wood or fruit, and the development of the roots is in direct proportion to the increase of leaves.

From this, it follows: 1st. That it is injurious to remove the leaves from the plant, with a view to ripen the fruit by the admission of sun and air (this point has been fully discussed, page 110, et seq).

2. That during the first two years’ growth of the plants, the production of leaves should be encouraged as much as possible, so as to aid in the development of roots. Hence the plants should be carefully tied up, so as to preserve the leaves clean, active and uninjured, and abundant light and air should be furnished, so that they may be able to perform their part with efficiency. This being the case, it may be asked why we advise the stopping of the laterals which certainly form leaves, and hence must increase the growth of the roots. Two reasons may be given for the practice either of which are ample. The first is that it is not the leaves, per se, which do good, but their action on the sap, to effect which, they must be supplied with air and light. Now, if the leaves on the laterals are allowed to grow, they crowd the foliage at the base of the plant, so that many of the leaves are partially shaded, while if these laterals are prevented from growing, the sap which would be absorbed by them goes to the elongation and enlargement of the main stem, by which the leaves are disposed over a greater surface and consequently maintain a more vigorous action. And, as during the first two years at least, the production of canes well ripened in their whole length, is no object, seeing that they are all to be cut away at the winter pruning, the vines should not be stopped, but should be allowed to grow to the end of the season. For as the roots require a certain degree of warmth to enable them to grow, and as the earth is in the best condition as regards temperature, just at the close of the growing season, it is best to maintain a vigorous action in the roots at that time—a time when they can make the most of it.

The second reason is, that the sap, as before stated, flows most vigorously through stout, free-growing shoots. Now, by removing the laterals, we increase the vigor of the main stem as well as its size, and hence not only obtain an enlarged, but a more suitable channel for the sap to flow in. The consequence is, that a well trained shoot will far exceed the aggregate of the same shoot and its laterals, if it be neglected during its growth.

IV. The more the sap is impeded in its course, the less vigorous will be the shoots produced, but the greater the tendency to bear fruit.