The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1943-03-01
By Il. E. LANG

The popular time to prune grapes
is on mild days during late Febru.
AIRY and March when the vines are
warm and pliable and do not break
easily when bent On cold days, the
vines are stiff and tend to break
more easily. Although there are
many good methods OF training the
vines. there is only one good meth
cd OF pruning and that is TO give
strict attention TO the principles.
The principles OF pruning are few,
simple and definite. First. It is inn
portant to understand that grapes
are borne only from fruit buds OF
the previous seasons growth. Sec
ond, Il is important to understand
that normally the best buds are the
fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and
eighth buds located on young canes
about q inch in diameter, which is
not much greater than that OF an
ordinary lead pencil. Sometimes
the area OF good buds extends to
the ninth, tenth, and even to the
18th or Goth bud, but the first two
buds on the cane are usually very
poor or worthless, and the third bud
is only fair. Therefore, before prun-
ing the average vine, one should
decide to save at least four good
canes. each containing about eight
to 10 buds. The buds should be
spaced not more than five to eight
inches apart. generally the closer
the better II the plant Is very Wig
orous, and II there is enough space
on the trellis. more than four canes
could be saved. On the other hand,
II the plant is young or weak, 1t may
three canes and occasionally only
one. Sometimes the canes are all
weak. In that case, one or two OF
the best ones should be chosen and
cut so as to leave only five or six
buds. With good cultural condi-
tons, the plant can be invigorated
so that better canes will be avail.
able the following year
Some varieties such as Delaware
and Moore's Early are naturally
weak growers and should be pruned
more severely than the more vigor-
Gus varieties such as Concord and
Niagara. Also. some varieties, such
as Campbell's Early, normally pro-
duce enormous punches. and there
fore. larger canes should be saved
and the vine should be pruned more
severely than a vine Of equal yigor
that produces punches of ordinary
size. Although it is difficult to con-
vey in words what can be learned
best through experience, with the
different varieties, nevertheless, In
general, It may be said that about
nine-tenths of the previous season s
growth (by weighD should be re-
moved each year from practically
all varieties. At the same time, all
OF the old wood that can be spared
should be removed.
Sometimes one finds an unusual
ly large young cane that has made
a tremendous growth, extending for
a distance OF 10 or 20 feet along
the trellis. Often there are short
branches on such cane. Generally
speaking, these large "jumbo'
canes or bull canes, as they are
sometimes called. are not satisfac-
tory to save for production pur-
poses unless It is impossible to
find enough OF the desirable pencil
sized canes. Bull canes seldom
bear much fruit.
The number OF fruit buds left on
each plant affects the kind and
amount OF growth that will take
place during the growing season.
Generally II the growth is extreme
ly vigorous resulting in the forma-
ton OF huge bull canes rather