The Care of Cuttings.
—After the cuttings are made and bundled, they should be labeled with wooden labels and immediately taken to some place where they can be heeled in. The lead-pencil is the best for writing the names. The best place in which to heel in the cuttings is on the north side of some large building, under an open shed or under some large trees. In fact, any place which is partially shaded and cool will do. If the bundles are to be used soon or shipped, they might be placed on the wet ground, and only covered with sacks or with straw, but, if they are to remain any longer time, they must be placed in the ground and carefully covered. A trench should be dug half the depth of the cutting, but slightly wider. The bundles are placed in the trench upright, and after the trench is full the soil from the new trench, parallel with the first one, is thrown on and around the bundles so as to keep them moist. It is best not to keep the cuttings too moist, and on no account should they be wet, as they will then begin to root rapidly, and when they are again removed these roots will break or dry up to the great injury of the cutting. If unavoidably the planting is delayed longer than expected, the bundles of cuttings may be taken out and placed in dry air for a day or for a few hours, and then replaced in the soil. This may be done several times without any injury accruing to the cuttings, the only effect of the drying being to retard their rooting and sprouting, but it should of course not be done after they have once begun to callus or root. To place cuttings in water for any length of time is nearly always injurious, and especially so if the water is bad or contains manure. Manure water always kills cuttings readily. If the cuttings have sprouted, or begun to make roots, or form callus, a careful vineyardist will take his bundles to the field submerged in a barrel or bucket of water, or at least wrapped in wet sacks or blankets. If again the cuttings are dry and a fresh cut does not show a flow of sap, they may be freshened by soaking in fresh water over night. Even very poor and dry cuttings are easily revived this way, but a continuous immersion for several days will injure the cuttings and cause them to rot. It is also of importance that the water should be clear and cold, or at least not warm. Instead of immersing the cuttings in water, they may be set down in cool and moist soil for three or four days before being planted. The soaking in water is the simplest, quickest and most effective for slightly dried cuttings.
Planting Cuttings.
—Planting cuttings in the vineyard can be done in several different ways. They may be planted with a spade, with a flat planting bar, or with the “sheep’s-foot.” Each one of these tools will answer the purpose if properly used, but their selection must depend upon the quality of the soil, and upon the nature of the land generally. In all planting of cuttings, the following points must be observed as of importance in insuring success. The cuttings must be set in moist and cool soil. The lower end of the cuttings must lodge in solid ground, and there must be no air space at the bottom. Only one eye should be left above the surface of the soil. The soil must be tamped well around the cutting from the bottom to the top. All inferior cuttings should be thrown away, and every cutting should be examined before it is planted.
For a description of the tools used in planting, I beg to refer to the [end of this chapter]. I will now further consider the above points. Many failures are made by not planting in moist soil. If irrigation is needed, irrigate before planting, then plow and harrow, and then plant. When moist cuttings are planted in dry and warm soil, the latter will extract all the moisture from the cuttings, and the latter will fail to grow. I have seen parties first plow deep furrows through the vineyard, so as to air and dry the ground before planting the cuttings. This is not necessary and even harmful. Moist and warm ground is essential to the starting and growth of cuttings. The lower end of the cutting should be lodged in solid ground, or the cutting will fail to grow. This point is of the utmost importance, and should be carefully observed. If, when the cutting is pushed down in the soil, a small air chamber form at the lower end, the butt end of the cutting will mold, and the latter will be poisoned and die. Nine-tenths of all the failures in planting are caused by neglect in this respect. Care is especially needed when the sheep’s-foot is used. Only one eye should be left above ground, which is enough for all purposes. Any more eyes will exhaust the cutting before it is rooted, and the additional length of the cutting will expose it to the danger of being broken or otherwise injured. The soil must be tamped hard all along the cutting so as to cause the latter to attract the necessary moisture. Loosely set cuttings very often fail, especially in dry seasons. All inferior cuttings, especially those frosted or otherwise injured, should be thrown out before being brought to the field. A cutting costs so little that it pays to use only the strongest and best, when a much better stand will be the result. Frosted cuttings can be detected by their darker color. Fresh and healthy cuttings should have a green and fresh cambium or inner bark, and a fresh cut should show fresh sap oozing out.
When the sheep’s-foot is used in planting, the butt end of the cutting is inserted in the forked end of this tool, and this explains why it is necessary to have as little wood as possible below the last eye of the cutting. By pushing the sheep’s-foot down in the soil, the cutting is pushed simultaneously down to the proper length; a twist is then given the sheep’s-foot so as to get it loose from the cutting, and the former is then pulled up. It may in some instances be necessary to push down the cutting with the left hand, while the sheep’s-foot is being pulled back, as care must be taken that in pulling back the sheep’s-foot the cutting is not lifted. Even the smallest lift will cause the lower end of the cutting to hang in an air chamber, and this will, as I have stated, cause the cutting to mold and die. When planted, a few sharp taps with the foot will sufficiently fix the cutting. When the flat bar is used, a hole is first made by the bar, the cutting is then inserted, and the hole filled up by again inserting the bar near the cutting, and by pressing it forward towards the latter. Neither of these tools can be used in dry or stony soils, but in moist and loamy soil, which has been previously well prepared, they are most excellent, as doing the work both quickly and well. The sheep’s-foot is unexcelled for speed in loose soil, while the flat bar is of advantage where the soil is a little harder. The flat spade is used when rocky and stony or even gravelly soil interferes with the using of the former tools. Every farmer will know how to use the spade, and no further explanation is required here.
Some plant the cuttings slantingly in the soil, in order to bring them as near the surface as possible. This is well enough and proper in very wet soils, where the lower strata are too cool, but in this warm country the perpendicular planting is easier and better. By twisting and bending the cutting in the dug hole a longer cutting can be used, but I have seldom found any advantage of very long cuttings, and few soils are suited to raisin grapes when such methods are needed to produce strong and rapidly growing vines.
Care of Young Cuttings.
—In places where irrigation is needed and used, many irrigate the cuttings immediately after they are planted, so as to settle the soil. This, however, is only needed where the ground is very dry or very sandy. It is much the better way to irrigate before planting and to plant on the loose soil after it has been replowed and properly prepared. Such soil keeps the moisture for a long time, and even in dry climates will require no irrigation for months after the planting. The principal care, after the cuttings have been planted, but before they are fairly started, is to keep the ground loose and to prevent it from baking on the surface. The best way to accomplish this is to run a revolving randel harrow over the land regardless of the cuttings. This kind of harrow consists of a row of vertical, slightly concave steel discs, which revolve when the harrow is pulled over the land. No regard need be paid to the rows of cuttings, provided they do not stand too high above the surface, or have begun to swell. Not one cutting in a hundred is injured, and those that are cut off are sure to sprout from below. After every shower of rain, the land should be harrowed or pulverized in this way. If the soil is baked and hard around the cuttings, the latter will be slow to start, but a loosening of the soil will have the desired effect almost immediately. The amount of irrigation needed for young plantations can only be decided upon on the ground. The cuttings should be kept growing, and young leaves should always be seen at the tips of the branches. Long before these young leaves cease growing, a copious supply of water should be added to keep the soil from becoming too dry.