Grapes -- Varieties -- United States; Viticulture -- United States
Winter-pruning of the vineyard may be done at any time from the
dropping of the leaves in the autumn to the swelling of the buds in
the spring. The sap begins to circulate actively in the grape early in
the spring, even to the extremities of the vine, and most
grape-growers believe this sap to be a "vital stream" and that, if the
vine is pruned during its flow, the plant will bleed to death. The
vine, however, is at this season of so dropsical a constitution that
the loss of sap is better denominated "weeping" than "bleeding." It is
doubtful whether serious injury results from pruning after the sap
begins to flow, but it is a safe practice to prune earlier and the
work is certainly pleasanter. The vine should not be pruned when the
wood is frozen, since at this time the canes are brittle and easily
broken in handling. On the other hand, it is well to delay pruning in
northern climates until after a heavy freeze in the autumn, to
winterkill and wither immature wood so that it can be removed in
pruning.
[Illustration: PLATE IX.--Campbell Early (x2/3).]
_Summer-pruning._
There are three kinds of summer-pruning, the removal of superfluous
shoots, heading-in canes to keep the vines in manageable limits and
the pruning to induce fruitfulness discussed on a foregoing page,
which need not have further consideration. It is very essential that
the grower keep these three purposes in mind, especially as there is
much dispute as to the necessity of two of these operations.
All agree that the vine usually bears superfluous shoots that should
be removed. These are such as spring from small, weak buds or from
buds on the arms and trunk of the vine. These shoots are useless,
devitalize the vine, and hinder vineyard operations. A good practice
is to rub off the buds from which these shoots grow as they are
detected, but in most vineyards the vines must be gone over from time
to time as the shoots appear. Still another kind of superfluous
shoots, which ought to be removed as they appear, are those which grow
from the base of the season's shoots, the so-called secondary or
axillary shoots. These are usually "broken out" at the time the shoots
from weak buds are removed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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