Grapes -- Varieties -- United States; Viticulture -- United States
Usually this new top can be treated essentially as if it were a new
vine. Not infrequently the cane will make sufficient growth and mature
well enough so that it may be left as a permanent trunk at the end of
the first season. If, however, the wood is short, weak and soft, it
should be cut back in the autumn to two or three buds from one of
which a permanent trunk can be trained the next season from which a
good top can be formed in another season. The old top is discarded as
soon as the new trunk is tied to the trellis. Old vineyards are often
rejuvenated in this way to advantage and return profits to their
owners for years; but if the soil is poor and the vines weak, attempts
to renew the tops seldom pay.
Occasionally rejuvenating old vines by pruning is worth while. When
such an attempt is made, it is best to cut back severely at the
winter-pruning, leaving two, three or four canes, depending on the
method of training, of six, eight or ten buds. The amount of wood left
must depend on the vigor of the plant and the variety. The success of
such rejuvenation depends much on selecting suitable places on the old
vine from which to renew the bearing wood. It requires good judgment,
considerable skill and much experience to rejuvenate successfully an
old vineyard by remodeling the existing top, and if the vines are far
gone with neglect it is seldom worth while.
Sometimes old vines or even a whole vineyard can be rejuvenated most
easily by grafting. This is particularly true when the vines are not
of the kind wanted, and when the vineyard contains an occasional stray
vine from the variety to which it is planted. Directions for grafting
are given on pages 45 to 50. The grafted vine is readily brought into
shape, under any of the several methods of training, by treating it as
a young vine.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.--Diana (x3/5).]
CHAPTER IX
GRAPE-PRUNING ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE
The methods of pruning and training native grapes, discussed in the
last two chapters, do not apply to the Vinifera grapes grown in the
favored valleys of the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific slope. As we
have already seen, the Vinifera or Old World grape differs markedly in
habits of growth from the American species so that it would not be
expected that pruning which applies to the one would apply to the
other types. The fundamentals, to be sure, are much the same and the
different species of grapes are about equally subservient to the
shears of the pruner, but while pruning to regulate fruit-bearing
finds many similarities in Old and New World grapes, the training of
the vines is radically different.
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