Pruning And Training Distinguished

The grape is pruned to increase in various ways the economic value of

the plant by increasing the quantity and value of the crop. This is

pruning proper. Or grapes are pruned to make well-proportioned plants

with the parts so disposed that the vines are to the highest degree

manageable in the vineyard. This is training. To repeat, the

grape-plant is pruned to regulate the crop; it is trained to regulate

the vine. Grape growers usually speak of both operations as "pruning,"

but it is better to keep in mind the two conceptions. The distinctions

between pruning and training must be made more apparent by setting

forth in greater detail the results attained by the two operations.



Results attained in pruning to regulate the crop.



Proper pruning of vines in their first year in the vineyard, which, as

we have seen, consists of cutting the young plants back severely,

brings the vines in productive bearing a year or two years earlier

than they would have borne had the pruning been neglected. This early

pruning, since it is done with an eye to the vigor of each vine,

insures greater uniformity in the growth and productiveness of the

vineyard. Uniformity thus brought about is important not only for the

time being, but for the future development of the vines, since weak

vines, if unpruned, are stunted and may require years to overtake more

vigorous vines in the vineyard.



The quality of the crop may be regulated by pruning. When vines bear

too heavily, the grapes are small, and wine-makers have found that

they seldom develop sugar and flavor as do grapes on vines not

over-bearing. Grapes on vines too heavily laden seldom ripen or color

well. Not only are the grapes on poorly pruned and unpruned vines poor

in quality but the grapes on such vines are usually not well

distributed and therefore ripen and color unevenly. The results just

mentioned follow because the bunches in a poorly distributed crop

receive varying amounts of light and heat depending on the distance

from the ground, the distance from the trunk and on the amount of

shade.



Pruning may be used to regulate the quantity of grapes borne in a

vineyard and so be made somewhat helpful in preventing alternate

bearing. Abnormally large crops are usually followed by partial crop

failure and biennial bearing sometimes sets in, but the large crop may

be reduced by pruning and the evil consequences wholly or partly

avoided. It follows that pruning must depend much on the vigor of the

vine; for a weak vine may be so pruned as to cause it to overbear;

and, on the other hand, a vigorous vine pruned in the same way might

not bear at all.



Results attained in pruning to regulate the vine.



It is necessary to regulate the shape of the vine by training so that

tilling, spraying, pruning and harvesting can be easily performed and

the crop be kept off the ground. The cost of production is always less

in a well-pruned vineyard because all vineyard operations are more

easily carried out.



The life of a vineyard is lengthened when the vines are well trained,

because when the parts of a vine are properly disposed on trellis or

stake the plants are less often injured in vineyard operations.

Moreover, not infrequently vines die from over-production and

consequent breaking of canes or trunks which might have been prevented

by pruning to shape the vine. Suckers and water-sprouts are less

common on well-trained vines. It is necessary, too, by training to

keep the bunches away from trunk, canes and other bunches and so

prevent injury to the grapes.



Lastly, fashion, taste or a more or less abnormal use of the grapes,

may prescribe the form in which a vine is trained. Fashion and taste

run from very simple or natural styles to exceedingly complex, formal

ones, depending, often, on the variety, the environment or other



condition, but just as often on the whim of the grape-grower. The

grape is a favorite ornamental for fences, arbors and to cover

buildings; for all of these purposes the vines must be trained as

occasion calls.