Manual of American Grape-Growing Part 11

In the several methods in which the shoots droop, however the canes may be disposed, the shoots are not tied but are allowed to droop at will. These methods are comparatively new but are being rapidly adopted because of several marked advantages. Usually one less wire can be used in a drooping method than in an upright one; since the shoots are not tied, much labor is saved in summer tying; the ground can be tilled with less danger to the vines; and there is less sun-scalding of the fruit, since the pendant foliage protects the cl.u.s.ters. Grape-growers generally agree that strong-growing varieties like Concord, Niagara, Brighton, Diamond and most of the hybrids between European grapes and native species grow best when the shoots droop.

Shoots are trained horizontally in but one recognized method, the Hudson Horizontal, to be described in detail later. Since this method is all but obsolete, there is still less reason for discussing it here, the expressive name sufficing for present purposes.

_Disposition of canes._

There are many recognized methods of disposing of the canes in training the grape. The chief of these are discussed in the pages that follow, their names being set down for the present in the cla.s.sification that follows.

CLa.s.sIFICATION OF METHODS OF TRAINING THE GRAPE IN EASTERN AMERICA

I. Shoots upright:

1. Chautauqua Arm.

2. Keuka High Renewal.

3. Fan.

II. Shoots drooping:

1. Single-stem, Four-cane Kniffin.

2. Two-stem, Four-cane Kniffin.

3. Umbrella Kniffin.

4. Y-stem Kniffin.

5. Munson.

III. Shoots horizontal:

1. Hudson Horizontal.

_I. Shoots upright_

Systematic training of the grape in America began toward the middle of the nineteenth century with a method in which the shoots were trained upright from two permanent horizontal arms. These arms are laid to right and left on a low wire and bear more or less permanent spurs, from each of which two shoots are produced each season to bear the crop. The number of spurs left on each arm depends on the vigor of the vine and the s.p.a.ce between vines. As the shoots grow upward, they are tied to upper wires, there being three wires on the trellis for this method. This method is now known as the Horizontal Arm Spur. It has a serious fault in its troublesome spurs and has almost entirely given way to a modification called the Chautauqua Arm method, much used in the great Chautauqua grape-belt. As one of the chief methods of training the grape in eastern America, this must be described in detail.

_The Chautauqua Arm method._

The trellis for this method has two wires, although occasionally three are used. The lower wire is eighteen or twenty inches above the ground and the second thirty-four inches above the lower. If three are used, the wires are twenty inches apart. F. E. Gladwin, in charge of the vineyard laboratory of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Fredonia, in the heart of the Chautauqua belt, describes this method of training as follows:

"The vines are cut back to two buds at each pruning the first two years. If the vines are vigorous two canes are tied up at the beginning of the third year; if scant, but one is left and this, if the growth is extremely unfavorable, is cut back to two buds. The canes are carried up obliquely to the upper wire when the growth permits and are there firmly tied either with twine or fine wire, the latter being more commonly used. The canes are also loosely tied to the lower wire. The pruning for the fourth year consists in cutting away all but two or three canes and a number of spurs from the arms formed by tying up the two canes the previous year. The vine now consists of two arms, arising from near the ground, with two or three canes of the previous year, and several two-bud spurs at intervals along the arms. As far as possible such canes as have arisen but a short distance above the lower wire are selected. All the old wood projecting beyond the last cane retained on each of the arms is cut away. The arms of the third year are bent down from their oblique position and are tied firmly to the lower wire, to the right and left of the center of the vine. These are now permanent arms. The vine at this time consists of two arms, arising from near the ground, tied to the lower wire to the right and left of the center, and on these are two or three canes, pruned long enough to reach to the middle wire at least, and if possible to the upper. They are tied so that they stand in a vertical or oblique position. Along the arms at intervals of a few inches are spurs, consisting of two buds. If the vineyardist maintains the arms permanently, these spurs furnish the fruiting wood for the succeeding year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16. Chautauqua training; vine ready to prune.]

"At the pruning for the fifth year one of the arms is cut away entirely, close to the point of its origin. The remaining arm, reaching from the ground to a point a few inches below the level of the lower wire, now becomes the permanent stem. The vineyardist must now provide for the arm cut away. This is done by the selection of a cane, arising from the remaining arm at a point below the lower wire, either directly, or from a spur left for the purpose. This is pruned to reach the top wire and is tied obliquely to it. This cane at the next pruning is tied down to the lower wire and becomes the second arm. Then the same selection of canes and spurs is made from it as was made at the previous pruning, and the canes are tied up as before.

However, if the grower desires to retain both arms of the preceding year for a few years, canes that have grown from the spurs may be tied up and provision made for the following year through further spurring.

If but a single arm is retained, it is pruned in the same way. Spurs may be obtained from canes that have arisen from dormant buds on the arm, or by spurring in the basal canes of the fruiting wood of the year previous. A combination of both methods of renewal will in the long run work out the better, as the repeated spurring in of the basal canes will result in greatly lengthened spurs that will require frequent cutting out. While the canes that arise directly from dormant buds on wood two years and over are not necessarily the best fruiting ones, they can, however, be utilized for renewal purposes.

"The ideal vine pruned to this system now consists of a stem reaching from sixteen or eighteen inches above the ground level or a few inches below the level of the lower wire. Such a vine is shown in Figure 16.

From the head two arms arise, one extending to the right, the other to the left and tied along the lower wire, each arm not extending for more than two feet and a half to either side of the head. From the arms two canes on each are tied vertically or obliquely to the top wire. In addition there are left two or three spurs, growing from the upper side of each arm, located at well-s.p.a.ced intervals starting close to the head; these may be used for the renewal of the arms. The shoots are not tied.

"One of the chief faults of the Chautauqua Arm method is the tendency of the best matured, and most desirable canes to develop at or near the upper wire, while those lower down are often too short, or so poorly matured as to be unfitted for fruiting purposes. When the wood, bearing the well-developed upper canes, is brought down for arms, a considerable interval of the arm from the head to the point where the canes arise is without fruiting wood. Under such conditions the growth will be again thrown to the extremities. If spurring on the arms has been practiced, this undesirable condition is eliminated. With either type of renewal, spurring should be practiced. The fruit from vines trained by this method reaches its highest development at or near the level of the upper wire, that on the lower shoots is, as a rule, quite inferior. This comes from the fact that the sap flow is more vigorous at these upper points, resulting in more and healthier leaves, which, in turn, influence the fruit for the better."

_Keuka High Renewal._

Several methods of training pa.s.s under the general term "High Renewal," the significance of which becomes apparent in the discussion of the Keuka High Renewal method which is probably now the most common of the several types. In most of these methods the trellis is put up with three wires, but occasionally only two wires are used and still less often four. The lowest wire on the three-wire trellis is eighteen or twenty inches from the ground with twenty-inch intervals between wires. Gladwin, who has direct charge of vineyard experimental work about Keuka Lake for the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, describes current practices in pruning according to this method as follows:

"At each pruning for the first two years the vines are cut back to two buds. However, with strong-growing varieties like Concord, Niagara and Isabella, and under good soil conditions, the stem may be formed the second year. With moderate-growing varieties and under average conditions, the formation of the stem is left until the third year.

The straightest and best-matured cane is left for the purpose. This is carried to the lower wire and there firmly tied with willow. As soon as the shoots have made sufficient growth they are loosely tied to the wires that they may be kept away from the tillage tools. The fourth year the head of the vine is formed. This should stand a few inches below the lower wire. Two canes growing from the stem near this position are selected, one being tied to the right and the other to the left along the lower wire. In the Keuka Lake District, the canes are tied with willows. In addition, at least two spurs of two buds each are retained near the head. With Concord, the canes may carry about ten buds each, but with Catawba, as grown on the hillsides of the Central Lakes Region of New York, the canes should not carry above six buds each. As the shoots develop from the horizontal canes, they are tied with rye straw to the middle and upper wires. This summer tying is almost continuous after the shoots are long enough to reach the middle wire.

"The following year all the wood is cut away except two or three canes that have developed from the basal buds of the canes put up the previous year, or that have grown from the spurs. In the event of a third cane being retained, it is tied along the middle wire. Spurs are again maintained close to the head for renewal purposes. The other two canes are tied along the lower wire as before. If the same spurs are used for a few years they become so long that the canes arising from them reach above the wire and cannot be well managed in the 'willowing.' It is desirable to provide new spurs annually, selecting those canes for the purpose that arise from the head of the vine or near it. It is possible by careful pruning to so cut away the old wood that practically all that remains after each pruning is the stem. Thus the vine is renewed almost to the ground. When the stem approaches the end of its usefulness, a shoot is allowed to grow from the ground, and the old one is cut away. Figure 17 shows a vine pruned by the Keuka method.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17. Keuka method of training.]

"This method of training is especially well adapted to slow growing varieties, or those situated on poor soils, where but little wood growth is made. It is ideally adapted for the growing of Catawba on the hillsides of Keuka Lake. It is well adapted to late-maturing varieties planted out of their zone. Concord, growing under average conditions, is too vigorous to be trained by this method. It makes a tremendous growth of wood out of all proportion to the quant.i.ty of fruit, which is inclined to be very inferior. The chief objection to this method is the amount of summer tying involved which comes at a time when attention to tillage should be given. It might prove profitable in the growing of dessert varieties that have been discarded because of lack of vigor. On thin hillside soils, Catawba requires training modelled after this method but on the heavier upland ones, with shorter pruning, it can be grown on the Chautauqua Arm plan. Delaware, Iona, Dutchess, Campbell, Eumelan, Jessica, Vergennes and Regal are, as a rule, grown to better advantage when trained by the High Renewal method."

_Fan-training._

The only other method now in use in which the shoots may be trained upright is that in which the canes are disposed of in fan-shape. This method was much used a generation ago but is rapidly becoming obsolete. In fan-training the renewals are made yearly from spurs near the ground, and the fruiting canes are carried up obliquely and so form a fan. The great advantage in fan-training is that a trunk is almost dispensed with, which greatly facilitates laying down the vine in winter where winter-protection is needed. There are several objections to this method in commercial plantations. The chief one is that the spurs become long, crooked and almost unmanageable so that renewals from the root must be made frequently. Another is that the fruit is borne close to the ground and becomes soiled with mud in das.h.i.+ng rains. The vines, also, are inconvenient in shape for tying.

There are two or three modifications of fan-training which may be described as mongrel methods between this and the High Renewal and Horizontal Arm methods, none of which, however, is now in general favor.

_II. Shoots drooping_

Quite by accident, William Kniffin, a stone mason living at Clintondale, New York, in the Hudson River grape region, discovered that grapes of large size and handsome appearance could be grown on vines in which the canes were trained horizontally with the shoots drooping. He put his discovery in practice and from it have come the several methods of training grapes which bear his name. Kniffin's discovery was made about 1850 and the merits of his methods spread so rapidly over eastern America that by the end of the century the various Kniffin methods were more generally used than any others.

Grape-growers now agree that strong-growing vines like Concord, Niagara and Clinton are best trained to one or another of the Kniffin methods. There are several modifications of Kniffin's method, three of which are now in common use, the most popular being the Single-stem, Four-cane Kniffin.

The trellis for the three methods carries two wires, the lower placed at the height of three to three and a half feet and the upper from two to two and a half feet above it. To permit this height of wires, the posts must be from eight to eight and a half feet in length, and must be firmly set with the end posts well braced.

_Single-stem, Four-cane Kniffin._

As practiced at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, the vines are trained as follows:

One trunk is carried to the top wire the third year after planting, or if the growth is not long enough at this time, it is carried to the lower wire and there tied. In this case, the following year a cane is extended to the top wire. This trunk is permanent. If the stem reaches the upper wire the third year, growers break out many of the developing shoots and allow only the strongest to grow, choosing those that arise close to the wires. The stem should be tied tightly to the top wire and somewhat loosely to the lower. If girdling results at the top, it is not objectionable as the head of the vine should be below rather than above the wire. When the shoots are sufficiently hardened, those growing close to the wires should be loosely tied to prevent injury during cultivation. At the beginning of the fourth year, as shown in Fig. 18, the vine should consist of a stem extending from the ground to a point below the top wire. From this, all but two canes and two spurs of two buds each have been cut away below each wire level.

As growth is most vigorous at the top of the stem, four to six more buds are left on the upper than on the lower canes. A vine of which the stem reaches the upper wire the third year should support the next season canes, aggregating twenty-two buds with eight additional buds on the spurs. If the growth is weak, only half this number should be left.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18. Single-stem, Four-cane Kniffin training.]

The tying at this time consists of fastening the stem loosely, with ordinary grape twine, to the lower wire, and with the same material the canes are tied along the two wires to right and left of the stem.

The canes should be tied tightly toward the trunk so that they cannot slip out of the twine. Ordinarily tying at this time is sufficient for the year, but if conditions for growth are unfavorable, the twine may rot before the tendrils take hold of the wires, and a partial second tying may be necessary.

After the fourth season, the pruner has greater choice of fruiting-wood for the following year. It may be chosen from the basal canes of the preceding year's wood or the canes that develop from the spurs may be used. The choice should depend on the accessibility and maturity of the wood. At each pruning, the possibilities for obtaining fruiting wood for the following year must receive consideration. It is possible to use the same spurs for two or three years, but after this they should be cut away and new ones retained. After the first spurring, spurs should be selected from wood older than two years. The shoots from such wood bear but little fruit and hence make good fruiting canes for the next year.

_Umbrella Kniffin._

Since most of the fruit on vines trained by the Four-cane Kniffin method is borne on the two upper canes, some growers in the Hudson River Valley dispense with the lower canes and cut the upper ones long enough to bear the crop. In this method the trunk is brought to the top wire and the head formed as in the Four-cane Kniffin. When the vines are pruned at the close of the third year, two long canes are left at the head of the vine with two renewal spurs. These long canes are drooped over the upper wire obliquely down to the lower wire to which they are tied just above the last bud, forming an umbrella-shaped top as shown in Fig. 19. The renewals are made as in the Four-cane Kniffin. This method reduces the amount of leaf surface to the minimum, so that care must be taken to insure healthy leaf growth. The amount of fruiting-wood put up is also reduced to the minimum, so that the yield is low unless good cultivation is provided, in which case, with some varieties and on some soils, the yield is up to the average and the crop is first-cla.s.s as regards size of bunch and berry, compactness of bunch and maturity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19. Umbrella method of training.]

_The Two-trunk Kniffin._