FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114  
115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   >>   >|  
g one or more canes, cut to the desired number of buds, to supply bearing shoots. By this method the most of the bearing wood is removed each year, new canes taking the place of the old. These renewal canes may be taken either from the head of the vine or from the ground, though the latter is little used except where vines must be laid down for winter protection. Canes may be renewed indefinitely, if care is exercised in keeping the stubs short, without enlarging the head from which the canes are taken out of proportion to the size of the trunk. Renewing by canes is a more common method than renewal by spurs, as will be found in the discussion of methods of training. [Illustration: FIG. 13. Vine ready for pruning; _i_, the stem; _g_, arms; _d_, canes; _s_, shoots; _b_, spurs. The faint lines near the bases of the canes indicate the points where they should be pruned off in the winter, leaving spurs for the production of shoots the following season.] _Spur renewal._ In renewing by spurs, a permanent arm is established to right and left on the canes. Shoots on this arm are not permitted to remain as canes but are cut back to spurs in the dormant pruning. Two buds are left at this pruning, both of which will produce bearing shoots; the lower one, however, is not suffered to do so but is kept to furnish the spur for the next season. The shoot from the upper bud is cut away entirely. When this process is carried on from year to year, the spurs become longer and longer until they become unwieldy. Occasionally, however, happy chance permits the selection of a shoot on the old wood for a new spur. Failing in this, a new arm must be laid down and the spurring goes on as before. The objections to renewing by spurs are: it is often difficult to replace spurs with new wood, and the bearing portion of the vine gets farther and farther from the trunk. For these reasons, spur-renewing is generally in disfavor with commercial grape-growers, though it is still used in one or two prominent methods of training, as will be discovered in this discussion. Figure 13 shows a vine ready for pruning. THE WORK OF PRUNING The pruner may take his choice between several styles of hand pruning-shears with which to do his work. The knife is seldom used except in summer-pruning, and here, more often, the shoots are broken out or pinched out. In winter-pruning, the cane is cut an inch or thereabout beyond the last bud it is desired to leav
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114  
115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

pruning

 

shoots

 

bearing

 

renewal

 
winter
 
renewing
 

training

 

farther

 

methods

 

season


discussion

 
method
 

longer

 

desired

 
objections
 

difficult

 
replace
 
process
 
permits
 

portion


chance

 

unwieldy

 
Occasionally
 

selection

 

spurring

 
Failing
 

carried

 

seldom

 
summer
 
shears

styles
 

broken

 
thereabout
 
pinched
 

choice

 

commercial

 

growers

 

disfavor

 
generally
 

reasons


prominent

 
PRUNING
 

pruner

 

discovered

 

Figure

 

keeping

 

exercised

 

enlarging

 

proportion

 

Illustration