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AMERICAN
GRAPE TRAINING
An account of the leading
forms now in use of Training
the American Grapes.
_By L. H. BAILEY_
NEW YORK:
THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1893.
_By the same Author._
=Annals of Horticulture= in North America for the year 1889. A
witness of passing events and a record of progress. 249 pages, 52
illustrations.
=Annals for 1890.= 312 pages, 82 illustrations.
=Annals for 1891.= 416 pages, 77 illustrations.
=Annals for 1892.=
*.* A new volume is issued each year, each complete in
itself. Cloth, $1; paper, 60 cents.
=The Horticulturist's Rule-Book.= A compendium of useful information
for fruit-growers, truck-gardeners, florists and others. Second
edition, revised to the opening of 1892. 221 pages. Cloth, $1;
paper, 50 cents.
=The Nursery Book.= A complete guide to the multiplication and
pollination of plants. 304 pages, 106 illustrations. Cloth, $1;
paper, 50c.
=Cross-Breeding and Hybridizing.= With a brief bibliography of the
subject. 44 pages. Paper, 40 cents. (Rural Library Series.)
=Field Notes on Apple Culture.= 90 pages, 19 illustrations. Cloth,
75 cents.
=Talks Afield=: About plants and the science of plants. 173 pages,
100 illustrations. Cloth, $1.
COPYRIGHTED 1893,
BY L. H. BAILEY.
ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY
J. HORACE M'FARLAND CO., HARRISBURG, PA.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Pages
Introduction 9-11
Pruning 11-24
CHAPTER II.
Preliminary Preparations for Training--The Trellis--Tying 25-33
CHAPTER III.
The Upright Systems. (Horizontal Arm Spur System. High Renewal. Fan
Training) 34-55
CHAPTER IV.
The Drooping Systems. (True or Four-Cane Kniffin. Modifications of
the Four-Cane Kniffin. The Two-Cane Kniffin or Umbrella System. The
Low or One-Wire Kniffin. The Six-Cane Kniffin. Overhead, or Arbor
Kniffin. The Cross-Wire System. Renewal Kniffin. The Munson System)
56-82
CHAPTER V.
Miscellaneous Systems. (Horizontal Training. Post Training. Arbors.
Remodeling Old Vines) 83-92
[Illustration: (Drawing of grapes)]
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1. Grape Shoot 12
2. The Bearing Wood 13
3. Diagram 15
4. Spur 18
5. Renewal Pruning 19
6. A Newly Set Vineyard 21
7. Horizontal Arm Spur Training 35
8. Horizontal Arm (Diagram) 36
9. Short Arm Spur Training 38
10. The Second Season of Upright Training 40
11. Making the T-Head 42
12. The Third Season of High Renewal 43
13. High Renewal, before Pruning 44
14. High Renewal, Pruned 45
15. High Renewal, Pruned and Tied 46
16. High Renewal with Four Canes 47
17. High Renewal Complete 48
18. A Slat Trellis, with Upright Training 51
19. Fan Training, after Pruning 55
20. William Kniffin 57
21. The True Kniffin Training 59
22. No. 21, when Pruned 60
23. A Poor Type of Kniffin 64
24. The Y-Trunk Kniffin 65
25. Umbrella Training 67
26. A Poor Umbrella System 68
27. Eight-Cane Kniffin (Diagram) 70
28. Overhead Kniffin 71
29. Overhead Kniffin 72
30. Overhead Kniffin, before Pruning 73
31. Cross-Wire Training 75
32. Cross-Wire Training, Outside View 76
33. Munson Training. End View 78
34. Munson Training. Side View 79
35. Horizontal Training 83
36. Low Post Training 86
37. A Yearling Graft 91
PREFACE.
This little book has grown out of an attempt to teach the principles and
methods of grape training to college students. I have found such
teaching to be exceedingly difficult and unsatisfactory. It is
impossible to firmly impress the lessons by mere lectures. The student
must apprehend the principles slowly and by his own effort. He must have
time to thoroughly assimilate them before he attempts to apply them. I
therefore cast about for books which I could put before my class, but I
at once found that there are very few succinct accounts of the subjects
of grape pruning and training, and that none of our books portray the
methods which are most largely practised in the large grape regions of
the east. My only recourse, therefore, was to put my own notes into
shape for print, and this I have now done. And inasmuch as all
grape-growers are students, I hope that the simple account will find a
use beyond the classroom.
This lack of adequate accounts of grape training at first astonished me,
but is not strange after all. It must be remembered that the cultivation
of the native grape is of very recent origin. There are many men who can
remember its beginning in a commercial way. It seldom occurs to the
younger generation, which is familiar with the great vineyards in many
states, that the Concord is yet scarcely forty years old, and that all
grape growing in eastern America is yet in an experimental stage.
Progress has been so rapid in recent years that the new methods outstrip
the books. The old horizontal arm spur system, which is still the chief
method in the books, has evolved itself into a high renewal training,
which is widely used but which has not found its way into the manuals.
The Kniffin type has outgrown its long period of incubation, and is now
taking an assured place in vineyard management. So two great types,
opposed in method, are now contending for supremacy, and they will
probably form the basis of all future developments. This evolution of
American grape training is one of the most unique and signal
developments of our modern horticulture, and its very recent departure
from the early doubts and trials is a fresh illustration of the youth
and virility of all horticultural pursuits in North America.
This development of our grape training should form the subject of a
historical inquiry. I have not attempted such in this little hand-book.
I have omitted all reference to the many early methods, which were in
most cases transportations or modifications of European practices, for
their value is now chiefly historical and their insertion here would
only confuse the reader. I have attempted nothing more than a plain
account of the methods now in use; in fact, I am aware that I have not
accomplished even this much, for there are various methods which I have
not mentioned. But these omitted forms are mostly of local use or
adaptation, and they are usually only modifications of the main types
here explained. It is impossible to describe all the variations in grape
training in a book of pocket size; neither is it necessary. Nearly
every grower who has given grape raising careful attention has
introduced into his own vineyard some modifications which he thinks are
of special value to him. There are various curious and instructive old
books to which the reader can go if he desires to know the history and
evolution of grape training in America. He will find that we have now
passed through the long and costly experiment with European systems. And
we have also outgrown the gross or long-wood styles, and now prune close
with the expectation of obtaining superior and definite results.
I have not attempted to rely upon my own resources in the preparation of
this book. All the manuscript has been read by three persons--by George
C. Snow, Penn Yan, N. Y., William D. Barns, Middle Hope, N. Y., and L.
C. Corbett, my assistant in the Cornell Experiment Station. Mr. Snow is
a grower in the lake region of western New York, and employs the High
Renewal system; Mr. Barns is a grower in the Hudson River valley, and
practices the Kniffin system; while Mr. Corbett has been a student of
all the systems and has practiced two or three of them in commercial
plantations. These persons have made many suggestions of which I have
been glad to avail myself, and to them very much of the value of the
book is to be attributed.
L. H. BAILEY,
ITHACA, N. Y., _Feb. 1, 1893_.
John Adlum, of the District of Columbia, appears to have been the first
person to systematically undertake the cultivation and amelioration of
the native grapes. His method of training, as described in 1823, is as
follows: One shoot is allowed to grow the first year, and this is cut
back to two buds the first fall. The second year two shoots are allowed
to grow, and they are tied to "two stakes fixed down to the side of each
plant, about five or six feet high;" in the fall each cane is cut back
to three or four buds. In the third spring, these two short canes are
spread apart "so as to make an angle of about forty-five degrees with
the stem," and are tied to stakes; this season about two shoots are
allowed to grow from each branch, making four in all, and in the fall
the outside ones are cut back to three or four buds and the inner ones
to two. These outside shoots are to bear the fruit the fourth year, and
the inside ones give rise to renewal canes. These two outer canes or
branches are secured to two stakes set about sixteen inches upon either
side of the vine, and the shoots are tied up to the stakes, as they
grow. The renewal shoots from the inside stubs are tied to a third stake
set near the root of the vine. The outside branches are to be cut away
entirely at the end of the fourth year. This is an ingenious renewal
post system, and it is easy to see how the Horizontal Arm and High
Renewal systems may have sprung from it.
AMERICAN GRAPE TRAINING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION--PRUNING.
Pruning and training the grape are perplexed questions, even to those
who have spent a lifetime in grape growing. The perplexity arises from
several diverse sources, as the early effort to transplant European
methods, the fact that many systems present almost equally good results
for particular purposes and varieties, and the failure to comprehend the
fundamental principles of the operations.
It is sufficient condemnation of European methods when applied in
eastern America, to say that the American grapes are distinct species
from the European grapes, and that they are consequently different in
habit. This fact does not appear to have been apprehended clearly by the
early American grape-growers, even after the native varieties had begun
to gain prominence. American viticulture, aside from that upon the
Pacific slope which is concerned with the European grape, is an industry
of very recent development. It was little more than a century ago that
the first American variety gained favor, and so late as 1823 that the
first definite attempt was made, in Adlum's "Memoir on the Cultivation
of the Vine in America," to record the merits of native grapes for
purposes of cultivation. Even Adlum's book was largely given to a
discussion of European varieties and practices. In 1846 "Thomas' Fruit
Culturist" mentioned only six "American hardy varieties," and all of
these, save the Catawba, are practically not in cultivation at the
present time. The Concord appeared in 1853. American grape training is,
therefore, a very recent development, and we are only now outgrowing the
influence of the practices early imported from Europe. The first decided
epoch in the evolution of our grape training was the appearance of
Fuller's "Grape Culturist," in 1864; for while the system which he
depicted and which yet often bears his name, was but a modification of
some European methods and had been outlined by earlier American writers,
it was at that time placed clearly and cogently before the public and
became an accepted practice. The fundamental principles of pruning are
alike for both European and American grapes, but the details of pruning
and training must be greatly modified for different species. We must
understand at the outset that American species of grapes demand an
American system of treatment.
The great diversity of opinion which exists amongst the best grape
growers concerning the advantages of different systems of training is
proof that many systems have merit, and that no one system is better
than others for all purposes. The grower must recognize the fact that
the most important factor in determining the merits of any system of
training is the habit of the vine--as its vigor, rate of growth, normal
size, relative size and abundance of leaves, and season and character of
fruit. Nearly every variety differs from others in habit in some
particular, and it therefore requires different treatment in some
important detail. Varieties may thrive equally well upon the same
general system of training, but require minor modifications; so it comes
that no hard and fast lines can be laid down, either for any system or
any variety. One system differs from another in some one main principle
or idea, but the modifications of all may meet and blend. If two men
practice the Kniffin system, therefore, this fact does not indicate that
they prune and train their vines exactly alike. It is impossible to
construct rules for grape training; it is, therefore, important that we
understand thoroughly the philosophy of pruning and training, both in
general and in the different systems which are now most popular. These
points we shall now consider.
PRUNING.
Pruning and training are terms which are often confounded when speaking
of the grape, but they represent distinct operations. Pruning refers to
such removal of branches as shall insure better and larger fruit upon
the remaining portions. Training refers to the disposition of the
different parts of the vine. It is true that different methods of
training demand different styles of pruning, but the modification in
pruning is only such as shall adapt it to the external shape and size of
the vine, and does not in any way affect the principle upon which it
rests. Pruning is a necessity, and, in essence, there is but one method;
training is largely a convenience, and there are as many methods as
there are fancies among grape growers.
[Illustration: 1. GRAPE SHOOT.]
All intelligent pruning of the grape rests upon the fact that _the fruit
is borne in a few clusters near the base of the growing shoots of the
season, and which spring from wood of last year's growth_. It may be
said here that a growing, leafy branch of the grape vine is called a
_shoot_; a ripened shoot is called a _cane_; a branch or trunk two or
more years old is called an _arm_. Fig. 1 is a shoot as it appears in
the northern states in June. The whole shoot has grown within a month,
from a bud. As it grew, flower clusters appeared and these are to bear
the grapes. Flowering is now over, but the shoot will continue to grow,
perhaps to the length of ten or twenty feet. At picking time, therefore,
the grapes all hang near the lower end or base of the shoots or new
canes, as in fig. 2. Each bud upon the old cane, therefore, produces a
new cane, which may bear fruit as well as leaves. At the close of the
season, this long ripened shoot or cane has produced a bud every foot or
less, from which new fruit-bearing shoots are to spring next year. But
if all these buds were allowed to remain, the vine would be overtaxed
with fruit the coming year and the crop would be a failure. The cane is,
therefore, cut off until it bears only as many buds as experience has
taught us the vine should carry. The cane may be cut back to five or ten
buds, and perhaps some of these buds will be removed, or "rubbed off,"
next spring if the young growth seems to be too thick, or if the plant
is weak. Each shoot will bear, on an average, two or three clusters.
Some shoots will bear no clusters. From one to six of the old canes,
each bearing from five to ten buds, are left each spring. The number of
clusters which a vine can carry well depends upon the variety, the age
and size of the vine, the style of the training, and the soil and
cultivation. Experience is the only guide. A strong vine of Concord,
which is a prolific variety, trained upon any of the ordinary systems
and set nine or ten feet apart each way, will usually carry from thirty
to sixty clusters. The clusters will weigh from a fourth to a half pound
each. Twelve or fifteen pounds of marketable grapes is a fair or average
crop for such a Concord vine, and twenty-five pounds is a very heavy
crop.
[Illustration: 2. THE BEARING WOOD.]
The pruning of the grape vine, therefore, is essentially a thinning
process. In the winter pruning, all the canes of the last season's
growth are cut away except from two to six, which are left to make the
fruit and wood of the next year; and each of these remaining canes is
headed back to from three to ten buds. The number and length of the
canes which are left after the pruning depend upon the style of training
which is practiced. A vine which may completely cover a trellis in the
fall, will be cut back so severely that a novice will fear that the
plant is ruined. But the operator bears in mind the fact that the grape,
unlike the apple, pear and peach, does not bear distinct fruit-buds in
the fall, but buds which produce both fruit and wood the following
season.
[Illustration: 3. DIAGRAM.]
Let us now suppose, therefore, that we have pruned our vine in the fall
of 1891 to two canes, each bearing ten buds. We will call these canes A
and B, respectively. (Fig. 3.) In 1892, therefore, twenty shoots grow
from them, and each of these shoots or new canes branches, or produces
laterals. We will call these new canes of 1892, A 1, A 2, A 3, B 1, B 2,
and so on. Each of the new canes bears at the base about two clusters of
grapes, giving a total yield of about forty clusters. These clusters
stand opposite the leaves, as seen in fig. 1. In the axil of each leaf a
bud is formed which will produce a cane, and perhaps fruit, in 1893. If
each of these new canes, A 1, A 2, etc., produce ten buds--which is a
moderate number--the vine would go into the winter of 1892-3 with 200
buds for the next year's growth and crop; but these buds should be
reduced to about twenty, as they were in the fall of 1891. That is,
every year we go back again to the same number of buds, and the top of
the vine gets no larger from year to year. We must, therefore, cut back
again to two canes. We cut back each of the original canes, A and B, to
one new cane. That is, we leave only A 1 and B 1, cutting off A 2, A 3,
etc., and B 2, B 3, etc. This brings the vine back to very nearly its
condition in the fall of 1891; but the new canes, A 1 and B 1, which are
now to become the main canes by being bent down horizontally, were borne
at some distance--say three or four inches--from the base of the
original canes, A and B, so that the permanent part of the vine is
constantly lengthening itself. This annually lengthening portion is
called a _spur_. Spurs are rarely or never made in this exact position,
however, although this diagrammatic sketch illustrates clearly the
method of their formation. The common method of spurring is that
connected with the horizontal arm system of training, in which the canes
A and B are allowed to become permanent arms, and the upright canes, A
1, A 2, B 1, B 2, B 3, etc., are cut back to within two or three buds of
the arms each year. The cane A 1, for instance, is cut back in the fall
of 1892 to two or three buds, and in 1893 two or three canes will grow
from this stub. In the fall of 1893 only one cane is left after the
pruning, and this one is cut back to two or three buds; and so on. So
the spur grows higher every year, although every effort is made to keep
it short, both by reducing the number of buds to one or two and by
endeavoring to bring out a cane lower down on the spur every few years.
Fig. 4 shows a short spur of two years' standing. The horizontal portion
shows the permanent arm. The first upright portion is the remains of the
first-year cane and the upper portion is the second-year cane after it
is cut back in the fall. In this instance, the cane is cut back to one
fruiting bud, _b_, the small buds, _a a_, being rubbed out. There are
serious objections to spurs in any position. They become hard and
comparatively lifeless after a time, it is often difficult to replace
them by healthy fresh wood, and the bearing portion of the vine is
constantly receding from the main trunk. The bearing wood should spring
from near the central portions of the vine, or be kept "near the head,"
as the grape-growers say. In order to do this, it is customary to allow
two canes to grow out each year back of the canes A 1 and B 1, or from
the head of the vine; these canes may be designated C and D. (Fig. 3.)
These canes, C and D, are grown during 1892--when they may bear fruit
like other canes--for the sole purpose of forming the basis of the
bearing top in 1893, while all the old top, A and B, with the secondary
canes, A 1, A 2, B 1, B 2, B 3, etc., is cut entirely away. Here, then,
are two distinct methods of forming the bearing top for the succeeding
year: either from _spurs_, which are the remains of the previous top; or
from _renewals_, which are taken each year from the old wood near the
head of the vine, or even from the ground. Renewals from the ground are
now little used, however, for they seldom give a sufficient crop unless
they are headed in the first fall and are allowed to bear the second
year. It should be borne in mind that the spur and renewal methods refer
entirely to pruning, not to training, for either one can be used in any
system of training. Spur pruning, however, is growing in disfavor
amongst commercial grape-growers, and the renewal is more or less used
in all systems of training.
[Illustration: 4. SPUR.]
Fig. 5 illustrates a renewal pruning. This engraving shows the head of a
vine seven years old, and upon which two canes are allowed to remain
after each annual pruning. The portion extending from _b_ to _f_ and _d_
is the base of the bearing cane of 1892. In the winter of 1892-3, this
cane is cut off at _d_, and the new cane, _e_, is left to make the
bearing wood of 1893. Another cane sprung from _f_, but it was too weak
to leave for fruiting. It was, therefore, cut away. The old stub, _b_,
_f_, _d_, will be cut away a year hence, in the winter of 1893-4. In the
meantime, a renewal cane will have grown from the stub _c_, which is
left for that purpose, and the old cane, _b d_, will be cut off just
beyond it, between _c_ and _f_. In this way, the bearing wood is kept
close to the head of the vine. The wound _a_ shows where an old stub
was cut away this winter, 1892-3, while _b_ shows where one was cut off
the previous winter. A scar upon the back of the head, which does not
show in the illustration, marks the spot where a stub was cut away two
years ago, in the winter of 1890-1. This method of pruning can be kept
up almost indefinitely, and if care is exercised in keeping the stubs
short, the head will not enlarge out of proportion to the growth of the
stock or trunk.
[Illustration: 5. RENEWAL PRUNING.]
_Pruning Young Vines._--The time required after planting to get the vine
onto the wires or trellis varies with the strength of the vine when set,
the variety, the soil and cultivation, and the system of training; but,
as a rule, the training begins the second or third year, previous to
which time the vine is pruned, not trained. Two-year-old vines are most
popular for planting, although in the strong varieties, like Concord and
Niagara, well-grown yearling vines are probably as good, if not better.
The strong-growing kinds are commonly set from eight to ten feet apart
in the row, and the rows eight or nine feet apart. Delawares and other
small vines may be set closer, although eight feet is preferable. When
set, the vine is cut back to two or three buds. During the first year,
the young canes are usually allowed to lie upon the ground at will, as
seen in fig. 6. In the fall or winter, all the canes but one are cut
off, and this one is cut back to two or three buds. The vine is,
therefore, no larger at the expiration of a year's growth than it was
when planted; but in the meantime the plant has become thoroughly
established in the soil, and the second year's growth should be strong
enough to form the basis for the permanent trunk or arm. If, however,
the second year's growth is weak, it may be cut back as before, and the
third season's growth used for the trunk. On the other hand, the growth
of the first year is sometimes carried onto the wires to form the
permanent trunk and arms, but it is only with extra strong vines in good
soil that this practice is admissible. From this point, the treatment
of the vine is discussed under training.
[Illustration: 6. A NEWLY SET VINEYARD.]
_When to Prune._--Grape vines may be pruned at any time during the
winter. It is the practice among most grape-growers in the north to
prune as time permits from November to late in February, or even early
March. The sap flows very freely from cuts made in spring and early
summer, causing the phenomenon known as "bleeding," or in Europe as
"weeping," and in order to prevent this loss, pruning is stopped six
weeks or more before the time at which the buds usually swell. It is yet
a moot point if this bleeding injures the vine, but it is a safe
practice to prune early. The vine is cut off an inch or two beyond the
last bud which it is desired to leave, in order to avoid injury to the
bud from the drying out of the end of the cane.
The pruning is done with small hand pruning-shears. The canes are often
allowed to remain tied to the wires until the pruning is accomplished,
although it is the practice with most growers who use the Kniffin system
to cut the strings before pruning. The removal of the severed canes is
known as "stripping." In large vineyards, the pruner sometimes leaves
the stripping to boys or other cheap labor. The stripping may be done at
any time after the pruning is performed until spring. It must be done
before the growth starts on the remaining portions of the vine, however,
to avoid injury to the young buds when tearing the vines off the
trellis.
_Summer Pruning._--There is much discussion as to the advisability of
summer pruning. It is essential to the understanding of the question
that the grower bear in mind that this summer pruning is of two
kinds--the removal or "breaking out" of the superfluous shoots, and
heading-in or "stopping" the main canes to keep them within limits. The
superfluous shoots are such as spring from small, weak buds or those
which break from the old arms or trunk of the vine. Shoots which start
from the very base of the old cane are usually weak and should be
removed. Buds in this position are shown at _a a_, in fig. 4. The
secondary or axillary branches, which often start from the base of the
season's shoots, should be removed or broken out. These superfluous
shoots are pulled off from time to time as they appear, or the buds may
be rubbed off before the shoots begin to grow.
The heading-in of the main canes, while desirable for the purpose of
keeping the vine within bounds, is apt to cause a growth of laterals
which choke up the vine and which do not mature, and in those styles of
training in which very little wood is allowed to grow, the practice may
prevent the development of a sufficient amount of leaf surface to
properly sustain the vine. Vines are often weakened by summer pruning.
These dangers can be overcome by careful attention, however, especially
by heading-in very lightly and by doing it as late in the season as
possible, when new lateral growth does not start readily. The necessity
of much heading-in has been largely obviated in late years by the
adoption of high or drooping systems of training, and by setting the
vines far apart. The strong varieties, like Concord, Brighton and
Niagara, should be set ten feet apart in the row, especially if grown
upon the Kniffin system. Catawba, being a very upright grower and
especially well adapted to upright training, may be set eight feet
apart, and Delawares are often set as close as six or eight feet. It is
doubtful, however, if any variety should be set less than eight feet
apart for trellis culture. In Virginia and southward, where the growth
is large because of the long seasons, vines are often set more than ten
feet apart. In the South, the rows should run north and south, that the
fruit may be shaded from midday sun. The only summer heading-in now
generally recommended is the clipping of the tips when they fall over
and begin to touch the ground. This clipping is often done with a sickle
or sharp corn-cutter.
_Objects of Pruning._--The objects of pruning the grape, as of other
fruits, are five:
1. To produce larger and better fruit.
2. To maintain or augment the vigor of the vine.
3. To keep the vine within manageable limits.
4. To facilitate cultivation.
5. To facilitate spraying.