Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-08-04
SUMMER PRUNING OF GRAPE
VINES.

This operation, which is a necessary
requisite of the vine dreSsers' art ia Eu.
rope and in the northern sections of this
continent, must receive great modifca-
tons when applied to our Southern zone.
The influences of our climate are
directly opposite in the results expected
from summer pruning, as this is prac-
ticed at the North. Our grapes, as 8
general rule, ripen earlier than we desire
for wine-making; at the North they often
ripen too late, hence we must by all
means at our command endeavOr to re-
tard their maturity.
The best preventive against this pre-
cocity in maturing is q dense shade,
which has wisely been provided by ma
ture in our native rampant varieties. Our
object, then, is to retard this as much IS
possible, in order to prevent too direct
exposure TO the sun as well as TO shade
the ground to prevent reflection. Sum
mer pruning has for its object to distrib
ute equally the wood of the vine, TO
equalize the fruit upon each cane, to pre- :
pare the ensuing years bearing wood,
and to remove sll supeTfluous canes. The
operations here should be commenced as
soon as the vines attained foot of new
growth, and all that is strictly necessary
is the removal Of any shoots that apr ear
either below the crown of the vine Chat
is the place where it was first cuD and
where the bearing canes commence or
start from the ro0ts. These are common
ly called suckers, and rob the vine of 3
portion of its strength. If your vines
are too heavily laden with fruit buLcheg,
remove portion of them, as also the
weaker bearing shoots, if more numerous
than the vine can perfect. Near the
crown will often appear a number IF
small shoots, which are useless either as
bearing shoots or bearing wood for tie
following year; rub these off, and let
your pruning end there.
The effects of severe summer pruning
are often disastrous; the vine receives q
sudden check of its sap; the leaves either
drop shortly after the operation, if this
has been performed during dry weather,
or the vines force out vigorous new
growth st every point where it was cut
back, which depIives the young fruit
punches of their necessary supply of SAP,
and causes them TO decay or shriVel up.
This latter evil is only to be spprehended
if the pruning has taken place during the
moist weather. When the leaves drop,
the fruit is suddenly exposed to the sun
is either burned, if far advanced enough
in size, or decays and drops off. Often
the fruit will remain s,atiosary and ur-
colored after the natural period of matur-
itv, when it drops, or if It remains, 1t is
always devoid of flavor. a knife should
never touch grapevine after it has re-
ceived its winters pruning. The necss-
sary removal of supeThuous shoots cen
be done by simply rubbing them off by
hand. Allow the canes to- remain I'M
touched during their summer growth,
Notwithstanding what foreign vine dress
ers may say TO the contrary.
IL the vines have been neglected until
the young shoots become burdened, it is
better to let them remain than remove
them at that late date; more injury is
done to the vine by late removal than by
allowing them to grow unrestrsined.-
Southern Gardener.