Part 7 (1/2)
Planting holes are thus dug in the furrow with the stakes as a center.
Marking by means of a measuring wire or chain is the best method of locating vines accurately in a vineyard. The measuring wire varies according to the wishes of the user from two to three hundred feet or may be even longer. The best wires are made of annealed steel wire about an eighth of an inch in diameter. At each end of the wire is a strong iron ring to be slipped over stakes. The wire is marked throughout its length by patches of solder at the distances desired between rows of vines; to make these places more easily seen, pieces of red cloth are fastened to them. Sometimes this measuring wire is made of several strands of small wire, giving more flexibility and making marking easier, since by separating the strands at the desired points, pieces of cloth may be tied to mark distances.
In using the wire, the side of the vineyard which is to serve as the base of the square is selected and the wire is stretched, leaving at least one rod from road or fence for a headland. With the wire thus stretched, a stake is placed at each of the distance tags to represent the first row of vines. Beginning at the starting point, sixty feet are measured off in the base line and a temporary stake is set; eighty feet at a right angle with the first line are then measured off at the corner stake, judging the angle with the eye; then run diagonally from the eighty-foot stake to the sixty-foot stake. If the distance between the two stakes is one hundred feet, the corner is a right angle. With the base lines thus started at right angles to each other, one can measure off with the measuring wire as large an area as he desires by taking care to have the line each time drawn parallel with the last, and the stakes accurately placed at the marking points on the wire.
Still another method which may be put to good use in laying out a vineyard, especially if the vineyard is small, is to combine measure and sight. The distances about the vineyard are measured and stakes set to mark the ends of the rows around the area. Good stakes can be made from laths pointed at one end and whitewashed at the other. A line of stakes is then set across the field each way through the center, in places, of course, which the two central rows of vines will fill. When these are in place, if the area is not too large or too hilly, all measurements can be dispensed with and the vines can be set by sighting. A man at the end of the row has three laths to sight by in each row and a second man should drive stakes as directed by the sighter. Accurate work can be done by this method, but it requires time, a good eye and much patience in the man who is sighting.
SELECTING AND PREPARING THE VINES
Young grape vines covet life, for they are usually vigorous and not easily injured. Hence, the plants may be brought from a distance without fear of loss. The local nurseryman is, however, a good adviser as to varieties if he is honest and intelligent, and, other things equal, he should be patronized. But if the grower's needs cannot be met at home, he should not hesitate to seek a nurseryman at a distance. This is more necessary with the grape than other fruits because young grapes are well and cheaply grown in certain localities only. With the grape, as with all fruit plants, it is much better to buy from the grower than from tree peddlers.
_Selecting vines._
Unless the buyer knows what he wants, selecting vines is gambling pure and simple. Fortunately, there are several marks of good vines very helpful to those who know them. One should first make sure that the roots and tops are alive to the remotest parts. The vines should have a good clean, healthy look with trunk diameter large enough to indicate vigorous growth, and an ample spread of roots. Large size is not as desirable as firm, well-matured wood and an abundance of roots.
Vines with internodes of medium length for the variety are better than those with great length or very short internodes. Such precautions as are possible should be taken to insure varieties true to name, although here the reputation of the nurseryman must be depended on except for the few varieties which may be known at sight in the nursery.
First-grade one-year-old vines are usually better than two-year-olds.
Stunted vines are not worth planting and two-year-old vines are often stunted one-year-olds. A few weak-growing varieties gain in vigor if allowed to remain in the nursery two years--three years, never.
_Handling and preparing the vines._
The better vines are packed, transported and cared for in the field, the quicker will the roots take hold and the vines make the vigorous start on which so much depends. The nurseryman should be requested not to prune much before packing and to pack the vines well for s.h.i.+pping.
The vines should be heeled-in as soon as they reach their destination.
If the vines are dry on arrival, they should be drenched well before heeling-in. It sometimes happens that the vines are shriveled and shrunken from excessive drying, in which case the plants often may be brought back to plumpness by burying them root and branch in damp earth, to remain a week or possibly two. To heel-in, a trench should be double furrowed in light, moist soil, the vines spread out in the trench two or three deep, and then earth shoveled over the roots and half the tops, sifting it in the roots, after which the soil is firmed. The vines may thus be kept in good condition for several weeks if need arises.
The vines are prepared for planting by cutting away all dead or injured roots and shortening-in the healthy roots. Grape roots can be cut severely if healthy stubs remain, the removal of small roots and fibers doing no harm, since fibers are of value only as indicating that the vine is strong and vigorous. Fresh fibers come quickly from stout, healthy roots. Most of the fibers of a transplanted vine die, and laying them out in the hole to preserve them, as is so often recommended, is but a useless burial rite. On good healthy vines, the stubs of the roots, when cut back, will be four to eight inches in length. The root system having been considerably pruned, the reciprocity between roots and tops must be taken into account and the top pruned accordingly. To reduce the work of the leaves to harmonize with the activities of the roots, the top should be pruned to a single cane and two, never more than three, buds. The vine is now ready for planting and, the soil being in readiness, planting should proceed apace.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VI.--Black Hamburg (1/2).]
PLANTING
The dangers and difficulties of planting hardwooded plants are greatly exaggerated. The tyro, in particular, is impressed with his responsibilities at this time, and often sends a hurry-up call to experiment station or nurseryman to ”send him a man to plant.” If the land is properly prepared and the plants in good condition, the operation of planting is easily, quickly and safely accomplished.
There is no need, in planting the vine, of such puttering overniceties as laying out the roots to preserve the fibers, watering each vine as it is set, inserting the vine in a gingerly fas.h.i.+on to make sure that it stands in its new abode as it stood in the old, or puddling the roots in pail or tub of water. On the other hand, the slap-dash method of a Stringfellow who cuts off all small roots and uses a crowbar in place of a spade is not doing duty by the plant, and burying the roots deep in the earth or covering them close to the surface is courting failure.
_Digging the holes._
This is a simple task in land in good tilth. The holes need only be large and deep enough to hold the roots without undue cramping. Herein is again manifested the wisdom of thoroughly preparing the land; for, in well-prepared land, the hole is really as large as the vineyard.
Even in the condition of poor tilth, deep holes are often a menace to the life of the plant, especially if drainage is not provided, for the deep hole becomes a tub into which water pours and stands to soak the roots of dying vines. An extra spurt in digging holes cannot take the place of perfect fitting of the land.
There is nothing to commend the practice of digging holes in a leisure time that all may be ready when the time to plant arrives. The vines will strike root best in the freshly turned, moist soil of newly dug earth, which can be firmly set about the roots when the vine is planted. Neither is time saved in digging beforehand, for the sun-baked and rain-washed sides of holes long dug would surely have to be pared afresh. It is, however, quite worth while to throw the surface soil to one side and that lower to the other, that a spadeful of moist, virile, surface soil may be put next to the roots.
There are, no doubt, some soils in which the holes might be blasted out with dynamite, as, for instance, in a shallow soil with the hardpan near the surface and good subsoil beneath. It is very questionable, however, whether these defective soils should be used for commercial plantings as long as there still remain unplanted many acres in all grape regions of good deep land for the grape. To such as are attracted by ”dynamite farming,” minute descriptions of methods of use of dynamite and even demonstrations may be secured from manufacturers of the explosive.
_Time to plant._
The best time to plant the vine in cold climates is early spring, when sun and showers arouse the spirit of growth in plants, and nutritive solutions proceed quickly and unerringly to their preappointed places.
At this time, the much mutilated vine can undertake best the double task of making fresh roots and opening the dormant leaves. Fall planting puts forward the work, thus diminis.h.i.+ng the rush of early spring when vineyard operations crowd, and, no doubt, when all is favorable, enables the vines to start a little more quickly. However, there are frequently serious losses from planting in the fall. In cold winters the grip of frost is sufficient to wrench the young vine from its place and sometimes all but heaves it out of the soil. There is, also, great liability of winter-killing in vines transplanted in the autumn, not because of greater tenderness of the plant, but because of greater porosity of the loosened soil which enables the cold to strike to a greater depth. These two objections to fall planting can be overcome largely by mounding up the earth so as practically to cover the vines, leveling the mound in early spring; but this extra work more than offsets the labor saving in fall planting.