Planting And Training

Two-year-old vines are most commonly planted. The vines are set inside

the house at least a foot from the walls and four feet apart. The

grapery must be built on piers with spaces of at least two feet

between, and the vines are placed opposite these openings in the

foundation. When planted, the vines are cut back to two or three buds,

and when these start the strongest are selected for training, the

others being rubbed off. The grapery must be strung with wires

running lengthwise of the house at about fifteen inches from the

glass. Greenhouse supply merchants furnish at a low price cast iron

brackets to be fastened to the rafters to hold these wires. As the

growing vines reach one wire after another, they are tied with raffia

to hold them in place. Usually, young vines will reach the peak of the

house by midsummer, and as soon as this goal is attained must be

pinched so that the cane may thicken up and store food in the lateral

buds for the coming season. When the wood is well matured, the vine is

cut back to half or one-third its length, depending on the variety,

laid on the ground and covered for the winter. An item of no small

importance in winter care is to keep out mice, this pest being

inordinately fond of grape buds, and once the buds are destroyed the

vines are ruined for the coming season.



The second year's work is largely a repetition of that of the first.

The vines are permitted to reach the peak of the house and are again

stopped by pinching. A considerable number of laterals spring up on

each side of the main vine, and these must be thinned as they develop

to stand at the distance apart of the wires to which they are

fastened. This is pre-supposing that the gardener has chosen the spur

method of pruning, the method generally used in America and the one,

all things considered, which gives best results. The selection of the

laterals the second year, therefore, is a matter of much importance

since spurs are to be developed from them. Care should be taken to

have these spurs regularly distributed over the length of the vine.

This second year, grapes must not be permitted to develop on the

terminal shoots, but a few clusters may be taken from the laterals in

which case the laterals are pinched two buds beyond the cluster, the

pinching continuing throughout the season if the laterals persist in

breaking, as they will do in most cases. At the end of the season, the

terminal is shortened at least one-half, and the laterals are pinched

back to a bud as close as possible to the main stem. The vines are

then put down for the winter as at the close of the first season.



The work of the third season is a repetition of that of the second,

with the exception that the vine is permitted to fruit throughout its

whole length, although not more than one pound of fruit to a foot of

main vine is permitted. The plants are now established and the only

pruning in this and succeeding years is to cut the laterals at the

close of each season close to the main stem, leaving strong healthy

buds of which at least one, usually more, will be found close to the

stem. If more than one bud starts, only the strongest is chosen,

although often an extra one is needed to fill a vacancy on the

opposite side. After the third or fourth season, depending somewhat on

the variety, two pounds of fruit or more to the foot of the main stem

can be permitted. The novice, however, is likely to permit his vines

to overbear with the result that the crop is cast, or the berries

rattle, or the fruit turns sour before ripening. From the beginning to

the finish of the season, in this method of pruning, much pinching of

laterals is required. No hard and fast rule can be laid down for this

pinching, but, roughly speaking, all new growth beyond the second

joint from the cluster should be pinched out as fast as it shows. With

most varieties, this means that the lateral is kept about eighteen

inches from the main stem. After a few years, well-developed spurs

form at the base of the original laterals, and from these spurs the

new wood comes year after year.



An alternative method of pruning is to permit the new canes to grow up

from a bud near the ground each season. When the vine is well

established, this new cane is fruited throughout its entire length,

the laterals being pinched as described under the spur method. This

method of pruning is known as "the long cane method." Gardeners hold

that they can grow better fruit with this than with the spur method,

but the difficulties are greater and the crop is not as large.