Vine Pruning

Frederic T. Bioletti

• Publisher: Detzer Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781446533901, 9781528773942
• eBook ISBN: 9781446549827
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

"Vine Pruning" is a comprehensive guide to maintaining grape vines, looking at why, when, and how it is done. Written in simple, clear language and profusely illustrated, this timeless guide is perfect for anyone with a practical interest in the subject, especially those with little previous experience. Contents include: "Objects of Pruning", "Physiological Principles", "Pruning for Wood and for Fruit", "Short and Long Pruning", "Pruning of Young Vines", "Sumer Pruning", "Pinching", "Suckering", "Topping", "Removal of Leaves", "Systems of Pruning", etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.

BERKELEY, CAL.

E. W. HILGARD, DIRECTOR. BULLETIN No. 119.

DECEMBER, 1897.

VINE PRUNING.

BY F. T. BIOLETTI.

The literature relating to the pruning and training of the vine is already very voluminous, but there seems to be no one work which treats the subject in a thorough and convenient way for California vine-growers. Publications in English refer generally to methods suited to the Eastern States or to hot-house cultivation, while foreign publications, besides being more or less inaccessible, treat the subject so widely that the grower is at a loss what to choose from such a mass of material. It is the purpose of this Bulletin, therefore, to present a brief summary of what in foreign methods seems useful and applicable to California conditions, together with the results of experiments on the University of California vine plots, and of observations made in numerous vineyards in various regions of the State.

Almost every vine-growing district has its peculiar systems of training, ranging from the non-training usual in parts of Italy, where the vine spreads almost at will over trees planted for the purpose, to the acme of mutilation practiced in many localities where the vine is reduced to a mere stump barely rising above the surface of the ground. These various systems will not be discussed here, but only those which experience has shown to be most adapted to California conditions.

No account, however detailed, of any system can replace the intelligence of the cultivator. For this reason the general principles of plant physiology which underlie all proper pruning and training are discussed in connection with the several systems described. This should aid the grower in choosing that system most suited to the conditions of his vineyard, and to modify it to suit special conditions and seasons. All the operations of pruning, tying, staking, etc., to which a cultivated vine owes its form, are conveniently considered together.

No cultivated plant is susceptible of such a variety of modes of training as the vine, and none can withstand such an amount of abuse in this matter and such radical interference with its natural mode of growth. On the other hand, no other plant, perhaps, is so sensitive to proper treatment, or responds so readily to a rational mode of pruning and training.

OBJECTS OF PRUNING.—The objects of pruning are (a) to facilitate cultivation and gathering, (b) to increase the average yield, and (c) to improve the quality of fruit. The vine must not be trained so high that the grapes are difficult to gather, nor allowed to spread its arms so wide that the cultivation of the ground is unduly interfered with. Vines untouched by the pruner’s knife bear irregularly; a year of over-bearing being followed by several of under-bearing as a consequence of exhaustion caused by a too severe drain on the reserve forces of the plant. The grapes on untrained or improperly trained vines are exposed to different conditions of heat and light, and consequently develop and ripen unevenly.

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.—The main facts regarding the physiology of the vine to be kept in mind in this connection are:

1. The vine feeds by means of the green coloring matter (chlorophyll) of its leaves. It obtains the sugar, starch, etc., which it needs from the carbonic acid of the air which is converted into these substances by the chlorophyll under the influence of light. A certain amount of green leaf surface functioning for a certain time is necessary to produce sufficient nourishment for the vital needs of the vine and for the production of a crop. Those leaves most exposed to the direct rays of the sun are most active in absorbing food. The youngest leaves take all their nourishment from the older parts of the plant: somewhat older leaves use up more nutrient material in growing than they absorb from the air. A young shoot may thus be looked upon as, in a sense, parasitic upon the rest of the vine. The true feeders of the vine and of its crop are the mature, dark-green leaves.

2. Within certain limits the fruitfulness of a vine or of a part of a vine is inversely proportional to its vegetative vigor. Methods which tend to increase the vegetative vigor of a vine or of a part of a vine tend to diminish its bearing qualities, while, on the contrary, anything which diminishes vegetative vigor tends to increase fruitfulness. Failure to reckon with this fact and to maintain a proper mean between the two extremes leads, on the one hand, to comparative sterility, and, on...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Vine Pruning.