Manual of American grape-growing

by U. P. Hedrick

Pruning, the second winter the vine is out, depends on the vigor of the plant. If a strong, healthy, well-matured cane over-tops the lower wire of the trellis, it should be cut back so that the cane may be tied to the wire; otherwise the vine should again be cut almost to the ground, leaving but three or four buds. If the cane be left, in addition to sturdiness and maturity, it should be straight, for it is to become the trunk of the mature vine. The training of the young vine is now at an end, for the next season the vine must be started toward its permanent form, instructions for which are given in the [chapter on pruning].

The summer care of the vineyard does not differ materially in the second year from that of the first. Intensive cultivation continues, the vines are treated for pests and the annual cover-crop follows cultivation. Many varieties, if vigorous, will set some fruit in this second summer, but the crop should not be allowed to mature, the sooner removed the better, as fruiting at this stage of growth seriously weakens the young vines.

Catch-crops and Cover-crops

A catch-crop is one grown between the rows of another crop for profit from the produce. A cover-crop is a temporary crop grown, as the term was first used, to protect the soil, but the word is now used to include green-manuring crops as well. Catch-crops seldom have a place in most vineyards, but cover-crops are often grown.

Catch-crops.

Catch-crops are not, as a rule, profitable in commercial vineyards; they may bring temporary profit but in the long run they are usually detrimental to the vines. It may pay and the grape may not be injured in some localities, if such truck crops as potatoes, beans, tomatoes and cabbage are grown between the rows or even in the rows for the first year and possibly the second. Land, to do duty by the two crops, however, must be excellent and the care of both crops must be of the best. Growing gooseberries, currants, any of the brambles, or even strawberries, is a poor procedure unless the vineyard is small, the land very valuable or other conditions prevail which make intensive culture possible or necessary. The objections to catch-crops in the vineyard are two: they rob the vines of food and moisture and endanger them to injury from tools in caring for the catch-crop.

Sometimes the grape itself is planted as a catch-crop in the vineyard. That is, twice the number of vines required in a row for the permanent vineyard are set with the expectation of cutting out alternate vines when two or three crops have been harvested and the vines begin to crowd. This practice is preferable to inter-planting with bush-fruits, yet there is not much to commend it if the experience of those who have tried it is taken as a guide. Too often the filler vines are left a year too long with the result that the permanent vines are checked in growth for several years following. The profits from the fillers are never large, scarcely pay for the extra work, and if the permanent vines are stunted, the filler must be put down as a liability rather than as an asset.

Cover-crops.

In an experiment being conducted by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, grapes do not give a very appreciable response to cover-crops in yield of fruit or growth of vine.[9] There seem to be no other experiments to confirm the results at the New York Station, and grape-growers nowhere have used cover-crops very generally for the betterment of their vineyards. There is doubt, therefore, as to whether grapes will respond profitably to the annual use of cover-crops in yield of fruit, which, of course, is the ultimate test of the value of cover-crops, but a test hard to apply unless the experiment runs a great number of years.