The Cordon or Wall System of Growing Grapes
There are those who have tried out the Labruscan varieties from Ontario. These cannot be grown under Guyot pruning methods but must be cultivated by a simpler system such as one main rod plus six strong side growths, which are pruned back hard each January.
In the spring choose the stoutest and strongest growth and tie this perpendicularly to a stake. Cut out all other growths and concentrate on this one. Do not carry out any summer pruning, just let this strong rod develop naturally. Next January cut this rod back to within 3 buds of its base. When the 3 buds grow out, keep them, tying them to stakes or bamboos so as to form a goblet shape. Do not do any summer pruning.
Once again in January cut back these 3 canes to within two buds of their base. Thus you will see that you are now producing your goblet-shaped bush with 6 branches. Each one of these 6 branches may carry six or seven bunches of grapes and the following January again they will be cut back to within two buds.
Once in position the rod is cut back, by about a quarter, and then the shoot which develops from the end bud is tied along the bottom wire until it reaches the next cordon where it is pruned, in the summer, to just above a bud. The laterals or side growths that develop from the lower parts of the cane are tied to the top wire when they are long enough and they are then pruned.
Powdery Mildew causes white patches to appear on the leaves and then the fruit, then the young shoots. Individual grapes that are attacked will either fall or go rotten. Vines that are mulched are seldom attacked with mildew, and when the young laterals are properly spaced out, so that they are not overcrowded, this disease seldom appears. Dusting the plants with a fine sulphur dust largely cures the trouble when seen.
Those who don’t believe in straw mulching may like to know that the prunings and foliage of healthy vines may be roto-tilled shallowly into the soil, in November, and so help to keep up the humus content. By rotary hoeing you smash up the prunings which then soon decompose.
