The culture of fruits and vegetables / by George Glenny.

  • Glenny, George, 1793-1874.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The culture of fruits and vegetables / by George Glenny. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    rarely the case, then a second bunch may be left on those which have them. The shoots on which the grapes are grow- ing should be pinched off at the first, or at most the second, leaf beyond the fruit, and the portion of branch beyond the bunch enables you to nail it to the wall in the most eligible position, which is generally right and left of the main stem. There are many who strip the leaves off the vine, to give, as they imagine, the grapes the benefit of the sun ; now, the vine must not be robbed of its leaves, except where two leaves cover each other, and make too deep a shade. The leaves are as important to the fruit as the sun is, and nothing can be much worse than the ordinary practice of stripping them off wantonly. The thinning of the fruit three or four times, the repeated examination of the vines, to remove any useless shoots, which may often be found in a strong vine when the principal branches are stopped, and the occasional shifting of the fruit branches from the spot at which they are nailed to others a little higher or lower, according as the growth of the fruit or the branches in their immediate neighbourhood dic- tates, are all necessary operations. While the grapes are swelling, there will still be found, after several thinnings, here and there berries, which are better cut out than left in, and, therefore, every time the vine is examined you should have the knife and scissors with you, and watch constantly till the fruit is fit to cut. The September, or rather the autumnal stopping of the alternate branches, which are grow- ing for the next year’s bearing, must be attended to, as soon as the growth is nearly completed; and when the fruit is ripening, .bottles of sugar and water should be hung up in the neighbourhood of the grapes before the wasps attack them or break a skin, for it is but little use attempting to lure them from the fruit after they have once tasted or broken into them. The grape will hang on the vine for a considerable period without being injured by a slight frost. If there be any desire to bag them, as the easiest means of preserving them, the bags should be made of coarse muslin as open and thin as possible. This plan of training and pruning, and, indeed, general management, is, we think, the best under all circumstances, where we have a clear wall, a clear border, new vines, and nothing to prevent our adopting it. And if we have to cover the front of a house, we should adopt the same principle,