Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-09-16
Cause Of Mildew on Grapes.

MOST grapevines are allowed to over
bear. The trimming in fall or winter
may be sufficient, but the shoots set
more fruit than they ought to bear.
This causes late ripening invariably.
and, if the fruit is excessive, mildew
Will strike it in the effort of nature to
destroy a part. Early in the season
there is no difficulty. To form green
grapes is little more labor than to send
out new shoots and leaves. The bios
somlng Is somewhat exhaustive, but the
greatest strain comes in perfecting the
seeds. Here in each seed is the EMBRYO
OF future vine, and twenty, thirty or
h1ty grapes often on single bunch,
each containing two or more seeds.
Three and sometimes four punches will
set On shoot. 1t is easy to see that the
minera! food, especially potash, required
10 perfect grape seeds must be drawn
upon to greater extent than the roots
can reach in ordinary soil. Prof. Cald-
well told us at the last meeting af our
horticultural society, that potash
seemed to be specific manure for fruit
. trees and vines at the time of ripening
their fruit, at which time also the seeds
are perfected.
The remedy that naturally suggests
itself is twofold. First to thin out the
fruit so as to enable the vine to perfect
1t. have often done this on Cat,wba
vines, thinning the grapes by cutting
out two and sometimes three punches
on shoot. In this way I have fairly
r1pened Catawbas in seasons when vines
not SO thinned would bear fruit hardly
colored. In weight the fruit would be
nearly the same, the punches on the
.th1nned vines being so much larger as
to compensate for their smaller number.
The thinning should be done before
poisoning if possible, or soon thereafter.
twill do good, however, any time before
the seeds are formed. Early in July
this year looked at one of my vines, a
Rebecca, which was literally loaded
with punches. Some shoots having
three or four punches had made a
growth of only few leaves beyond the
last bunch. No signs of mildew had
showed themselves as yet, and l imme-
diately picked the punches, taking the
smallest and poorest until had strip
ped nearly half the fruit from the vine.
There was probably then six to eight
quarts of punches, and they were not
quarter grown. The remainder imme-
diately began to grow rapidly, the
shoots put out new leaves, and all are
still healthy. The vine has still too
much fruit, and have left it so purpose
~, for 1 am trying an experiment with
it. I took several pieces of saltpeter,
(nitrate of potash) dissolved them in
two or three parts of water, and thor
oughly deluged the ground around the
vine to distance of several feet. The
water was not needed, but knew no
other way to get the potash to the roots
soon enough to do much good. The
foliage and fruit are still healthy, and if
the vine perfects its enormous crop of
grapes, l shall attribute it to the extra
help it got in time of need.
If this experiment is success, pro-
pose next spring to SOW some saItpeter,
say half pound per vine, around all !
my grapevines, and also cherry and ap-
pie trees. do not see why if potash is
a specific manure for fruits that dress
ing should not be applied every time
tree blossoms. Later in the season if |
the fruit is threatened, further dress
ing may be added. When we learn
what is wanted to make fruit grow, we
can supply it at the time and in quanti-
ties needed. Perhaps some other form
of potash will be found more available
than the nitrate; but have some faith
in the nitrogen as manure. The Re-
becca vine which 1 am experimenting
with is very liable to overbear, and this
I think is fault of most kinds of white
grapes, which may be one reason why
they are more apt to mildew.-C0r.
Country Gentleman.