Grapes -- Varieties -- United States; Viticulture -- United States
The Two-trunk Kniffin, illustrated in Fig. 20, is another modification
with the aim of securing greater fruitfulness. This method also
provides an equal number of buds on both wires. Two trunks are brought
from the root, one to the upper, the other to the lower wire. The
fruiting canes are taken off and are disposed of as in the Four-cane
Kniffin. The trunks are usually tied together to hold them in place.
This method is in restricted use in the Hudson River Valley where it
is known under the name given here and as "Double Kniffin" and
"Improved Kniffin." In experiments in training grapes at Fredonia, New
York, under the direction of the New York Experiment Station, this
method proves to be one of the poorest in growing Concords. The
grapes fall short in size of bunch and berry and do not mature as well
as under the other drooping methods of training.
[Illustration: FIG. 20. Two-trunk Kniffin training.]
_The Y-trunk Kniffin._
Still another modification of the Kniffin method is one in which a
crotch or Y is made in the trunk midway between the ground and the
lower wire. The theory on which this method is founded is that sap for
the lower canes is better supplied than in a straight or continuous
trunk and that the lower canes thus become as productive as those on
the upper wire. The theory is probably wrong but is accepted by many
notwithstanding. The methods of pruning, renewing fruiting-wood and
tying are the same as in the Single-stem Kniffin, except, of course,
that each stem supports two canes and two spurs. This method was in
somewhat common use some years ago in parts of western New York but is
now disappearing.
_The Munson method._
An ingenious modification of the Kniffin principle was devised by
Elbert Wakeman, Oyster Bay, Long Island, and afterwards improved and
brought into prominence by the late T. V. Munson of Denison, Texas; it
is now much used in southern vineyards. The method is described as
follows by Munson:[14]
"The posts should be of some durable strong wood, such as Bois d'Arc
(Osage), Cedar, heartwood of Catalpa, Black Locust or White Oak. The
end posts of every row should be large and strong and be set three and
one-half or four feet in the ground and well tamped. The intermediate
posts, which may be much lighter than the end posts, should be six and
one-half or seven feet long and set two to two and one-half feet in
the ground, with twenty-four feet spaces between posts, which will
take three vines, eight feet apart, or two vines twelve feet apart.
After the posts are set, a three-eighths-inch hole should be bored
through each post, four feet from the surface of the ground, in the
direction in which the row runs, leaving six inches or more of post
above the hole. These holes are for the admittance of the middle,
lower wire of the trellis.
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