Part 11 (1/2)

In the several methods in which the shoots droop, however the canes may be disposed, the shoots are not tied but are allowed to droop at will. These methods are comparatively new but are being rapidly adopted because of several marked advantages. Usually one less wire can be used in a drooping method than in an upright one; since the shoots are not tied, much labor is saved in summer tying; the ground can be tilled with less danger to the vines; and there is less sun-scalding of the fruit, since the pendant foliage protects the cl.u.s.ters. Grape-growers generally agree that strong-growing varieties like Concord, Niagara, Brighton, Diamond and most of the hybrids between European grapes and native species grow best when the shoots droop.

Shoots are trained horizontally in but one recognized method, the Hudson Horizontal, to be described in detail later. Since this method is all but obsolete, there is still less reason for discussing it here, the expressive name sufficing for present purposes.

_Disposition of canes._

There are many recognized methods of disposing of the canes in training the grape. The chief of these are discussed in the pages that follow, their names being set down for the present in the cla.s.sification that follows.

CLa.s.sIFICATION OF METHODS OF TRAINING THE GRAPE IN EASTERN AMERICA

I. Shoots upright:

1. Chautauqua Arm.

2. Keuka High Renewal.

3. Fan.

II. Shoots drooping:

1. Single-stem, Four-cane Kniffin.

2. Two-stem, Four-cane Kniffin.

3. Umbrella Kniffin.

4. Y-stem Kniffin.

5. Munson.

III. Shoots horizontal:

1. Hudson Horizontal.

_I. Shoots upright_

Systematic training of the grape in America began toward the middle of the nineteenth century with a method in which the shoots were trained upright from two permanent horizontal arms. These arms are laid to right and left on a low wire and bear more or less permanent spurs, from each of which two shoots are produced each season to bear the crop. The number of spurs left on each arm depends on the vigor of the vine and the s.p.a.ce between vines. As the shoots grow upward, they are tied to upper wires, there being three wires on the trellis for this method. This method is now known as the Horizontal Arm Spur. It has a serious fault in its troublesome spurs and has almost entirely given way to a modification called the Chautauqua Arm method, much used in the great Chautauqua grape-belt. As one of the chief methods of training the grape in eastern America, this must be described in detail.

_The Chautauqua Arm method._

The trellis for this method has two wires, although occasionally three are used. The lower wire is eighteen or twenty inches above the ground and the second thirty-four inches above the lower. If three are used, the wires are twenty inches apart. F. E. Gladwin, in charge of the vineyard laboratory of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Fredonia, in the heart of the Chautauqua belt, describes this method of training as follows:

”The vines are cut back to two buds at each pruning the first two years. If the vines are vigorous two canes are tied up at the beginning of the third year; if scant, but one is left and this, if the growth is extremely unfavorable, is cut back to two buds. The canes are carried up obliquely to the upper wire when the growth permits and are there firmly tied either with twine or fine wire, the latter being more commonly used. The canes are also loosely tied to the lower wire. The pruning for the fourth year consists in cutting away all but two or three canes and a number of spurs from the arms formed by tying up the two canes the previous year. The vine now consists of two arms, arising from near the ground, with two or three canes of the previous year, and several two-bud spurs at intervals along the arms. As far as possible such canes as have arisen but a short distance above the lower wire are selected. All the old wood projecting beyond the last cane retained on each of the arms is cut away. The arms of the third year are bent down from their oblique position and are tied firmly to the lower wire, to the right and left of the center of the vine. These are now permanent arms. The vine at this time consists of two arms, arising from near the ground, tied to the lower wire to the right and left of the center, and on these are two or three canes, pruned long enough to reach to the middle wire at least, and if possible to the upper. They are tied so that they stand in a vertical or oblique position. Along the arms at intervals of a few inches are spurs, consisting of two buds. If the vineyardist maintains the arms permanently, these spurs furnish the fruiting wood for the succeeding year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16. Chautauqua training; vine ready to prune.]

”At the pruning for the fifth year one of the arms is cut away entirely, close to the point of its origin. The remaining arm, reaching from the ground to a point a few inches below the level of the lower wire, now becomes the permanent stem. The vineyardist must now provide for the arm cut away. This is done by the selection of a cane, arising from the remaining arm at a point below the lower wire, either directly, or from a spur left for the purpose. This is pruned to reach the top wire and is tied obliquely to it. This cane at the next pruning is tied down to the lower wire and becomes the second arm. Then the same selection of canes and spurs is made from it as was made at the previous pruning, and the canes are tied up as before.

However, if the grower desires to retain both arms of the preceding year for a few years, canes that have grown from the spurs may be tied up and provision made for the following year through further spurring.

If but a single arm is retained, it is pruned in the same way. Spurs may be obtained from canes that have arisen from dormant buds on the arm, or by spurring in the basal canes of the fruiting wood of the year previous. A combination of both methods of renewal will in the long run work out the better, as the repeated spurring in of the basal canes will result in greatly lengthened spurs that will require frequent cutting out. While the canes that arise directly from dormant buds on wood two years and over are not necessarily the best fruiting ones, they can, however, be utilized for renewal purposes.

”The ideal vine pruned to this system now consists of a stem reaching from sixteen or eighteen inches above the ground level or a few inches below the level of the lower wire. Such a vine is shown in Figure 16.

From the head two arms arise, one extending to the right, the other to the left and tied along the lower wire, each arm not extending for more than two feet and a half to either side of the head. From the arms two canes on each are tied vertically or obliquely to the top wire. In addition there are left two or three spurs, growing from the upper side of each arm, located at well-s.p.a.ced intervals starting close to the head; these may be used for the renewal of the arms. The shoots are not tied.