Success in grape growing depends greatly on pruning. Best time for this is the early months of the year. A warm day in January or February when the ground is clear of snow is ideal, but the job should be accomplished before the middle of March when the sap rises.

Pruning is perhaps the most important skill the vineyardist must master. He must realize that fruit is borne only on wood of the present season which arises from wood of the previous season. This means that last year’s new wood is the only source of buds which grow into shoots bearing probably one to four clusters of grapes each.

The problem becomes (first) one of cutting back a limited number of good canes to a few buds which will produce as many new bearing shoots as the vine can support, and (second) cutting off entirely all remaining (even good) canes which would over-tax the vigor of the vine. With experience the grape-grower learns to tell from the looks of the cane, the size and growth of the vine in the previous year, and the variety’s characteristics for bearing, which and how many buds to leave.

He must constantly plan ahead for new wood low on the vines, so that the vines do not have to spend too much of their energy maintaining a great amount of unproductive wood. This necessary balance between fruiting canes this year and new wood for next year’s crop is difficult both to explain and to achieve, but usually the tendency of the beginner is not to prune severely enough.

More trimming and shaping comes after the grapes have bloomed and set the bunches. Each fruiting cane tries to grow on out into a long leafy cane beyond the three or four clusters which have formed. To make the plant use its strength for the fruit, these should be snapped off at about the second joint beyond the grapes. New shoots will try to grow at these points and often at the joint opposite the grape cluster, but these should be kept broken off as summer progresses. Keep just enough foliage to support the plant properly by making food and to shade the fruit. Usually the bunches of grapes should be thinned by about one-third so that they will ripen faster and more evenly.

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Acid plants are peculiarly children of the forest glade, where the spongy leaf mold under the trees provides conditions to their liking. Or they may grow in pockets of woodsy soil on the side of a mountain. One condition they won’t tolerate is dryness, whether of root or leaf.

This need for moisture doesn’t end with the coming of freezing weather. The leaves are active the year around, giving off moisture even when the ground is frozen. Because of the high water needs, plus the need for air for the fungus on the roots, acid soil plants are seldom deep rooted. They produce their root mass so close to the surface that cultivation is taboo. Instead, we provide a mat of spongy organic matter which is kept moist, but never soggy.

While peat moss can be part of this mat, it cannot be the sole source of organic matter. Peat moss has reached a near-stable condition, with its active foods spent by decay. Fungi need starehes and sugars which can only come from decaying organic matter. The fungi extract this food and pass part of it on to the host plant.

Iron Requirements

In regions of bright sunshine, we find these plants growing largely under trees in light filtered shade. In the Midwest,” this is the only place for them. In general, acid soil plants do best at a pH of 4.5 to 5.0, quite a bit lower than that found commonly. This low pH requirement seems to be tied in with the need of the plant for large amounts of iron, available only at readings below 5.9. This assumes, of course, that the iron is actually in the soil. Merely lowering pH will not make available iron that isn’t there.

The chelated irons, which remain active longer than other iron compounds, have not supplied this element as well as was first supposed they would. The best form of iron seems to be ferrous ammonium sulfate; a mixture of two ounces of ammonium sulfate, two ounces ferrous sulfate dissolved in ten quarts of water makes a good solution of this to use on azaleas and other broad-leaved evergreens. Use this solution in place of water about once a month. The pH of the soil should be lowered, both to make iron remain in solution longer, and to favor the mycorrhizal fungi. This is easier to say than it is to do. We don’t seem to realize how stubbornly soil tries to return to its original reaction. The buffering capacity of soil is tremendous.

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