The Carlisle independent., 1920-01-29
Cooper Giues Pointers on Cape
Culture

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Grapes may be pruned any
time after the leaves fall and be
fore the buds begin to swell il
the spring. However, if the
vineyard is small it is sometimes
wise to delay the pruning unit
spring because. of our flunctu-
ating temperatures in the win
ter is the advice of J. R. Cooper
horticulturist of the University
of Arkansas. On the other hand
if there is considerable pruning
to be done, it is impracticable to
wait until spring for if.the prun-
ing is delayed until the buds be-
gin to swell the vine will be
weakened from the loss of sap
from the cut epds.
I'VE find the greatest tenden-
cy among amateurs is to prune
too lightly Mr.. Cooper says.
They seem 10 be afraid of prun-
ing too severely and consequent
ly leave more wood than is desir-
abs. Proper pruning and train
ing of the vines are the most i'm
portant points in grape culture
and the pruning is a more or less
complex operation in which GER
tain rules must be more or less
rigidly followed. 1t is. not SIM
ply a judicious thinning out of
superfluous branches as is the
case in pruniny fruit trees.
The important factor in grape
pruning is the selecting of the
proper kind and amount of wood
to produce the next years crop.
It must be remembered that not
all buds will produce fruit the
following season. The first
thing for the novice to learn is
now to distinguish between fruit
bearing wood and wood which
will not bear fruit.
A cane growing from one year
old wood Zone year older than
itself} may usually be counted
on for bearing wood on which we
can depend for the coming crop.
A cane arising from wood two or
more years old is likely to be long
jointed. with few buds. These
buds rarelyproduce fruit. They
will however, produce shoots the
following year. which if retain
ed should produce fruit the sec
ond year.
A mature grape vine should
have from sixty to eighty buds
on good one year old fruiting
yood, after being p1uned. Weak
vines or vines which have made
little growth during the preced-
ing season should be cut back to
forty or sixty buds. Vines which
nave made an excessive heavy
growth of wood during the pre-
ceding season should be left
lightly to one hundred buds. A
good primer is able to estimate
the number of buds it is neces-
AIRY to leave without counting,
" merely noting the condition
i the vine,
There are a number of meth
DDS of pruning, but there is one
which gives better results for
Arkansas conditions than others.
This method is to prune in such
/ way that the new fruit bearing
wood will be left as canes; if
containing about six buds this
will mean that on an average
nealthy vine we should leave
from eight to twelve healthy
zane about six buds long and as
many snort spurs. These short
spurs will bear some fruit. but
the main object in leaving them
) to produce new wood for the
coming year.
Our object in leaving tie fruit
bearing cane for the coming sea-
son six buds long is that an ordi-
naly cane eight to sixteen buds
long will usually produce cane
fruit from about six buds; the
others bearing only short canes
ard foliage. The largest amount
of fruits are born on the third
to the sixth bud counting from
the base. Since only about six
buds will produce fruit and the
six which produce the most fruit
are those which are closest to the
parent plant, wood both new
and old in excess of the amount
already spoken of, should be cut
away. The new bearing wood