American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-08-17
Summer Pruning Grapes.

| In this country, grape culturists are not
agreed upon any system of summer pruf1-
ing. Having learned by costly expert
ence that foreign methods are lnapplica-
BILE here, there has been tendency to go
to the opposite extreme, and decry all
summer pruning as unnecessary and in
furious.
There are two important questions to
grape growers open to discussion: l. Is
summer pruning beneficial 2. With
the high price of labor and the low price
of grapes how much will it pay to
prune?
Let us consider the rationale of summer
pruning. To keep the vine within our
control, its natural inclination to run a
great distance, clinging to, and ascending
trees, and other supports, is thwarted by
the pruning practised during the suspen-
sion of growth. This destroys the bal
ance which the summers growth has es-
| tablished between vine and roots. Now
all growing vegetation has a strong tend
dency to maintain an equilibrium between
the parts growing above and those grow
ing below ground, hence the first efforts
of the vine, when the growing season
commences, are directed to restore the
balance destroyed by winters pruning.
But the sap, ascending from the roots not
finding the ordinary channels to flow in
| to, sets about creating others by pushing
| forward dormant buds in the remaining
wood, or developing new ones.
| Every farmer is aware that numerous
shoots or suckers start out around the
stump of branches that he saws off his
apple trees in the spring. So we find it
in the vineyard. Numerous shoots start
into growth from the remaining wood of
the pruned grape vine, and if unmolest-
ed make more vine than is desirable or
profitable. Now is it wise to suffer all of
these shoots to grow through the season,
! forming an excess of wood, to be cut
! away in the autumn, OF would it be bet
ter to remove while young, the greater
portion of the supert1uous shoots, there
by increasing the strength of those re-
naming?
| 1t may be difficult for novice to de-
termine what are superfluous, and what
are necessary shoots. We are to bear in
mind that the fruit is produced on laterals
| Tor side branches) growing out the cur
rent year. from wood of last years
growth hence we want to retain shoots
enough to bear what fruit the vine is able
to sustain this year, and to tie up to the
trellis to produce laterals for the next
years crop. We are all apt to leave too
many shoots for the good of the vines,
instead of too few.
To return to our question-we are de-
cidedly of the opinion that it is polite to
| rub off, while quite young, all shoots not
necessary in the growth and fruiting of
the vine.
| This pruning should be deliberate,
well considered operation. The primer
should calculate how much fruit the vine
is able to bear without detriment this
year-how much the next-leaving the
stronger shoots and removing the weaker.
In a few days more shoots will start out
| to replace those rubbed off, and they
should in their turn be removed. Thus
far there would probably be but little diff
ference of opinion among intelligent
vineyardists. There is another step re-
garding the expediency of which there
would probably be pretty general agree
ment 1t is this-after branch has set
two or three punches of grapes, it will
continue to grow in length, wasting the
sap in making useless wood that ought to
be employed in increasing the size of the
grapes. 1t has been pretty conclusively
demonstrated by experiment that If after
making two or three leaves beyond the
last bunch, the terminal bud be pinched
off, the size of the grapes will thereby be
augmented.
Upon the question of continuing the
summer pruning further, there would
be less unaninity. Some would stop
here, contending that it would not
pay to prune more, while others would
pinch back to one leaf the shoot that will
start out opposite each bunch of grapes,
and perhaps pinch off the vines reserved
for next year, when they have reached
the top of the trellis.
The foreign method is to continue prun-
ing all through the season, removing all
wood not required by the necessities of
the vine, and even thinning out the leaves
to admit the sunlight, but that system
has proved disastrous whenever practiced
in our climate.
There is, however, a growing convic
ton among the most experienced horti
cuturists in this country in favor of more
general summer pruning of all kinds of
trees, plants, and vines, and less winter
pruning In this way we can prevent
the growth of unnecessary wood, and
direct the sap into those parts that need
extending to preserve symmetry of form,
or Strengthening to sustain fruit. The
strongest argument against it is the scar
city of labor in the growing season, and
its abundance in the dormant season.
american Rural Home.