Manual of American grape-growing

by U. P. Hedrick

In some localities bagging is considered an essential to profitable grape-growing. The bags serve to protect the grapes against birds. In some grape regions vineyards suffer more from the depredations of robins and other birds than from all other troubles. Grapes bearing small berries and having tender pulp and those which shell most readily from the stem suffer most. Of standard sorts, Delaware is probably more enticing to robins than any other variety. There is only one way of preventing damage to grapes from birds and that is by bagging the clusters.

Bagging is also an effective means of protecting the grape from several fungi and insects. In home plantations or small commercial vineyards, bagging the bunches often eliminates the necessity of spraying for fungi and for most of the insects that trouble the grape. Because of the warmth afforded by the bags, bagged grapes ripen a little earlier and are of somewhat higher quality than those not bagged. Grapes bagged are protected from early frost, thus prolonging the season. Grapes that have been protected from the elements during the summer are more attractive than those exposed to the weather, since the fruits are free from weather marks and present a fresh, bright appearance, which puts them in a grade above unbagged grapes. Bagging often enables the grower to sell his crop as a fancy product.

Grapes are bagged as soon as the fruits are well set, the sooner the better if protection against fungi is one of the purposes. Under no circumstances, however, should the clusters be bagged while in blossom. A patent bag made for the purpose may be purchased or, serving equally well, the common one and one-half and two-pound manila bags used by grocers prove satisfactory. One of the patent bags which is known as the Ideal Clasp Bag has a metal clasp attached to the top for securing the bag in place over the cluster. In using the grocer's bag, before it is put in place the corners of both the top and bottom are cut off by placing several bags on a firm level surface and using a broad-shaped chisel. Cutting off the corners of the top enables the operator to close the bag neatly over the cluster, while cutting off the corners of the bottom furnishes a means of escape for any water that gets in the bag. In putting the bag in place, the top is pinned above the lateral from which the bunch hangs, and must not be fastened about the small stem of the cluster, as the wind blowing the bag almost invariably breaks the cluster from the vine. The largest pins to be purchased in dry-goods stores are used in pinning the bags. The bags remain until the grapes are picked. Wet weather does not injure bags and seemingly they grow stronger with exposure to sun and wind.

The cost of the bags and the work of putting them on is no small item. To secure the best results, the work must be done at the period between the dropping of the blossoms and the formation of the seeds, when the grapes are about the size of a small pea. This is a busy time for the grape-grower, which adds to the cost. When the work is conducted on a large scale, the cost is about two dollars a thousand bags, this figure covering both the cost of bags and labor. Women do the work more expeditiously than men and soon become very skillful in putting on the bags. Despite the trouble and cost of bagging, growers seeking to produce a fancy product find that the expenditure proves profitable.

Winter-protection of Grapes

With a little care as to winter-protection, grapes may be grown profitably in northern regions where, without protection, the vines are killed or injured by low temperatures. Indeed, it is little short of amazing how well grapes can be grown in northern regions where nature wears a most austere countenance in winter, if hardy early sorts are planted in warm soils and situations, and the vines are covered in the winter. Occasionally one finds grapes grown profitably in commercial vineyards in the northern states in regions where protection must be given to prevent winter-killing, the extra work of giving protection being more than offset by the high price received in local markets for the fruit.

In all locations in which winter-protection must be given, several other precautions are helpful or even necessary. Thus, cultivation must cease early in the season, and a cover-crop be sown to help harden and mature the vines. The grapes, also, must not be planted in soils rich in nitrogen, and nitrogenous fertilizers must be applied with care. The pruning should be such as does not induce great growth. These simple precautions to hasten maturity often suffice in climates where the danger of winter-killing is but slight, but where danger is imminent the vines must be covered either by wrapping or by laying down. Wrapping with straw may suffice for a few vines, but when many vines are to be protected, laying them down is cheaper and much more effectual.

By laying down is meant that the vines must be placed on the ground and there be protected by earth and snow or other covering. It is obvious that to protect thus, the vines must receive special training; otherwise the trunks may be too stiff for bending. Some method of training must be chosen in which renewals may be made rather frequently from the ground so that if the trunks become large, clumsy and unpliable, a more manageable trunk can be trained. If the provisions for renewal are kept in mind, any one of the several methods of training grapes explained in [Chapter VIII] on training may be used.

Laying down must be preceded by pruning, after which the arms and trunk are loosened from the wires and bent to the ground. Bending is facilitated by removing a spade full of earth from the side of the vine in the direction in which the vine is to be bent. The trunk is then laid on the earth and sufficient soil placed on it to keep it in place on the ground. If the danger of winter-killing is great because of the tenderness of the variety or the austerity of the climate, it often becomes necessary to cover the whole plant lightly with earth. Small growers often make use of coarse manure, straw, corn-stalks or similar covering, in which case the vines are held on the ground by fence-rails or other timbers; but protecting with material that must be brought into the vineyard is expensive and not more satisfactory than earth.

The vines can be put down at any time after the leaves drop and before the earth begins to freeze. It is more important that the vines be taken up at the proper time in the spring. If uncovered too early and cold weather follows, injury may result and more harm be done than if the vines had not been covered. On the other hand, if the earth is permitted to remain too long, foliage and vine are tender both to sunshine and frost. A grape-grower in New York who has had much experience in laying down vines in a vineyard of some thirty or forty acres says that the work may be done at a cost of $6 an acre at the average wage paid for farm-labor. It must be expected in a large plantation, no matter how well the work of covering is done, that occasionally a trunk will be broken, making it necessary to graft the vine if a shoot does not spring up from below the break.