Grapes -- Varieties -- United States; Viticulture -- United States
The New York Agricultural Experiment Station is experimenting with
fertilizers for grapes at Fredonia, Chautauqua County, the chief grape
region in eastern America. The experiment should be of interest to
every grape-grower from several points of view. It not only shows that
there are many and difficult problems in fertilizing grapes, but also
the results of the use of manure, commercial fertilizers and
cover-crops in a particular vineyard; it suggests the fertilizers to
be used and the methods of use; and it furnishes a plan for an
experiment by grape-growers who want to try such an experiment and
draw their own conclusions. An account of the experiment and the
results for the first five years follows:[10]
_Tests at Fredonia._
"In the vineyard at Fredonia eleven plats were laid out in a section
of the vineyard where inequalities of soil and other conditions were
slight or were neutralized. Each plat included three rows (about
one-sixth of an acre) and was separated from the adjoining plats by a
'buffer' row not under test. One plat in the center of the section
served as a check, and five different fertilizer combinations were
used on duplicate plats at either side of the check. Plats 1 and 7
received lime and a complete fertilizer with quick-acting and
slow-acting nitrogen; Plats 2 and 8 received the complete fertilizer
but no lime; on Plats 3 and 9 potash was omitted from the complete
fertilizer combination; Plats 4 and 10 received no phosphorus; Plats 5
and 11, no nitrogen; and Plat 6 was the check. The materials were
applied at such rates that they provided for the first year 72 pounds
of nitrogen per acre, 25 pounds of phosphorus and 59 pounds of
potassium; and for each of the last four years two-thirds as much
nitrogen and phosphorus and eight-ninths as much potassium. The lime
was applied the first and fourth years in quantity to make a ton to
the acre annually. Cover-crops were sown on all plats alike and were
plowed under in late April or early May of each year. These differed
in successive years, but included no legumes. The crops used were rye,
wheat, barley and cow-horn turnips separately and the last two in
combination.
"The cultivation differed only in thoroughness from that generally
used in the Belt, the aim being to maintain a good dust mulch during
the whole growing season. Pruning by the Chautauqua System was done
throughout by one man, who pruned solely according to the vigor of the
individual vines and left four, two or three, or no fruiting canes as
appeared best. The vineyard was thoroughly sprayed, all plats alike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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