The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally

by Mrs. Loudon

If the vine was planted in May or June the same year the cutting was struck, and nothing else is in the vinery, it should be allowed to remain all summer with the glasses off, and without fire heat; in September, however, the glasses should be put on, and enough heat applied to keep the temperature of the house at 55° or 60°, but always giving air in the middle of the day, in order to ripen the wood. In December, when the leaves begin to fall, the vines should be pruned, and they should then have a season of rest, till the leaf-buds begin to swell in spring. When only vines, or vines and peaches, are grown in a vinery, it is easy to give this season of rest by leaving off all fire heat, except what is necessary to keep out the frost, till the middle of February; but, when pines are grown in the same house, the stems of the vines are generally drawn out of the house during part of December, January, and February, and kept on the outside carefully wrapped up in mats and hay-bands, or laid along the ground and covered thickly with dead leaves and straw. The vine border should always be covered in the same manner during frosty weather, as neither stems nor roots should ever be exposed to a greater degree of cold than 40°. When the vines are planted out in June, they should not be suffered to bear any fruit that year; but, when they are not planted out till the February following, they may be allowed to bear one or two bunches each the following summer.

In pruning the vine great care should be taken never to cut close to a bud or eye, but generally to cut through the stem just in the middle of the internode or space between the buds, or at least half an inch from the bud left. The sap of the vine rises with great force; and if the pruning be delayed till spring, or if the cut be made too near the bud, the sap will flow profusely, and will very seriously weaken the plant. English gardeners call this overflowing of the sap bleeding; but on the Continent they call it the tears of the vine. There are three modes of pruning and training the vine; but the best for vineries is what is called the spurring-in system. This consists in training the plant with one long main shoot, which is always suffered to remain, and shortening the strongest of the side shoots to one or two eyes every winter, and removing those that are weakly, or that grow too closely together, as the shoots left, which are called the spurs, should always be about twelve inches apart.

The time of beginning to force grape vines depends upon the season at which the grapes are wanted, but the usual season is February. The cane of the vine is then taken into the house, if it has been wintered outside, and carefully trained to the rafter, the part next the ground being still kept wrapped round with hay-bands, and the hole stopped close round the stem, so as to prevent the vine receiving any check from the cold of the external air. Want of attention to this particular is very apt to produce a disease in the vines, which ends in what is called shanking, that is, a shriveling of the short stems of the grapes after they have set. The vine border has then its winter covering removed; and, after being forked over, a coating is laid on of rotten dung, two or three inches thick; or, what is better, a coating is laid on of turfy loam chopped up, and old lime mortar, about two inches deep, and on that a coating of rotten dung, two inches thick; over these may be replaced the coating of decayed leaves a foot thick, and straw or reed mat, which was laid on the bed during the severe frosts of winter. The grand point is, to keep the roots and part outside the house in the same temperature as that within, or even warmer.

When fire heat is first applied, the thermometer should be 55° at night, and 60° or 65° in the day; but the heat should be gradually increased as the buds begin to swell, keeping the heat at night about 10° lower than that of the day till the flower-buds appear, when the spurs are generally stopped about one bud beyond the flower-bud, and the leaf-shoots, which are opposite the flower-buds, are each stopped at a single leaf. The bunches must also be thinned, and not more than nine or ten allowed to each vine, if trained in the spur manner. The heat of the house should now be about 80° by day and 70° by night, and a little air should be given for half an hour every day, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature below 74°. The hot-water pipes or flues should be frequently sprinkled with water when the vines are going out of flower, and the grapes beginning to swell; and the grapes in each bunch should be thinned out with a pair of scissors, and the shoulders of the bunches tied up to allow the grapes to swell. The house should now be at its greatest heat, viz. 85° by day, and 74° or 75° at night; air should be given freely, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature below 77°; and the hot-water pipes should be sprinkled with water six or eight times during the twenty-four hours. When the fruit begins to change colour for ripening, this sprinkling should be left off, and air admitted freely, even at night, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature too much. During the whole of the forcing, the border should be watered with dung water; and, as soon as all danger from frost is over, the leaves and straw should be thrown off, and the bed slightly forked over, to admit the warmth of the sun to penetrate the earth, and the air to reach the roots of the vines, as unless the air is allowed to reach the roots the grapes will not set well.

If the forcing was commenced in February, the grapes will be ripe in July and August; the Sweetwaters ripening first, the Hamburgs next, and the West's St. Peter's and Muscat of Alexandria last. When grapes are wished to be ripe in May or June, the forcing must begin the first of December, and pines may be grown with the same heat as will be required for the vines; but, when this is the case, the vines must have an artificial winter given to them, by ceasing all fire heat as soon as the fruit is cut, and taking off the sashes; the stems are afterwards kept in the shade, and as cool as possible through September and October, and they are pruned in November. When, on the contrary, grapes are not required before September, very little forcing is requisite; but the bunches of grapes must be carefully thinned, and not more than ten or twelve bunches should be allowed on each vine. When the vines are in flower and the fruit setting, the house should be kept close, and the pipes or flues frequently sprinkled with water; as a hot dry air makes the calyx shrivel up before the pollen has reached the ovary, and, when this is the case, the grapes will be small and frequently without stones.

It would take too much space to explain to you the other methods of training and pruning, and I need only say that the long method, which is the only one except the spur system in general use, consists in cutting out the old wood every second year, and supplying its place with wood of the previous season's growth.

You will thus see that the principal points to be attended to in the culture of the vine are:—1. To prune the plants so as to prevent them from forming too much wood, but not to cut too near the buds; 2. To keep the roots and collar of the plants, when forcing begins, at the same temperature, or nearly so, as the upper part of the stems; 3. To admit air to the roots as soon as all danger is over from frost; 4. To thin both the branches and grapes properly and in due time; 5. To keep the air of the house moist when the fruit is setting and swelling; and 6. To give the plants a proper season of rest.

Pines are propagated by crowns, that is, the bunch of leaves on the upper part of the fruit; or suckers which form by the side of the old plant. These are potted in small pots in proportion to their size, in a soil composed of seven eighths of pure loam and one of silver sand; and plunged about two thirds of their depth into a bed of tan, at the heat of about 95° in the bed, and the usual heat of a forcing-house in the atmosphere, if grown in the vinery. Young plants are sometimes grown without pots in propagating-pits; from which they are transferred, after being repotted, to what are called succession pits; and, after remaining there a long time, they are either removed to the tan-pit in the vinery to fruit, or to fruiting-pits. I shall not attempt to give you directions for their culture during all these changes, which take up a great deal of time; Jamaica pines being two years before they are ready to cut, Providence pines about twenty or two and twenty months, and Queen pines sixteen or eighteen months. Your only chance of growing pines is, therefore, not to have them till they are put into fruiting-pots; these are plunged into the tan-pit in the vinery in February or March, when the forcing of the vines begins; and afterwards they will require no other care than watering them frequently, and keeping the atmosphere moist, to make the fruit swell. Pine-apples are sometimes grown without pots, in peat soil, through which pipes of hot water are carried so as to heat the earth to 95°, while the atmosphere is kept moist, and decayed leaves are laid on the surface and drawn up round the plants. In this way, Queen pines have been grown to the size of five or six pounds, and New Providence pines from twelve pounds to fifteen pounds.

When peaches are forced in a vinery, the trees should be three or four years old before they are put into the house. The best kinds are, the Grosse Mignonne, the Royal George, the Bellegarde, and the Late Admirable; and, where only one kind is wanted, the Bellegarde is preferred, as it is not so liable to the mildew as the others. The best kinds of nectarine for forcing are the Elruge and the Violette hâtive. If the forcing begins in December, the fruit will be ready in May. The leaves should be frequently syringed with water at the temperature of the house; and, in other respects, the culture is the same as for peaches in the open air, and the forcing the same as for vines. The greatest objection to growing peaches in a vinery is, that the shade thrown by the leaves of the vines prevents the proper colouring and flavouring of the fruit.