Training On Arbors Pergolas And As Ornamentals

The grape is much used to cover arbors, pergolas, lattices and to
screen the sides of buildings, few climbing plants being more
ornamental. Leaf, fruit and vine have been favorite subjects for
reproduction by ornamentalists of all ages. As yet, however, it is
seldom seen in cultivated landscapes except to secure shade and
seclusion.

Grown for aesthetic purposes, the grape is seldom fruitful, for the
vines can rarely be cultivated or deprived of their luxuriant growth
as in the vineyard. Nevertheless, grapes grown as ornamentals can be
trained so as to serve the double purpose of ornamental and
fruit-bearing plant. Grown on the sides of a building, the grape often
can be made to bear large crops of choicely fine fruit. The ancients
had learned this, for the Psalmist says: "Thy wife shall be like the
fruitful vine by the sides of thine house."

In all ornamental plantings on arbors or pergolas, if fruit is to be
considered, the permanent trunk is carried to the top of the
structure. Along this trunk, at intervals of eighteen inches, spurs
are left from which to renew the wood from year to year. The vines
should stand six or eight feet apart, depending on the variety, and
one cane is left, three or four feet long, on each spur when the
pruning is done. Shoots springing from these cover intermediate spaces
soon after growth begins. Provision, of course, must be made for a new
cane each season, and this is done by saving a shoot springing from
spur or trunk at pruning time.

The same method of training, with modifications to suit the case, may
be employed on sides of buildings, walls, fences and lattices. If the
object to be covered is low, however, and especially if fruit as well
as a covering is wanted, perhaps a better plan is annually to renew
from a low trunk or even back to the root. In this low renewal, a new
cane, or two or three if desired, should be brought out each season,
thus securing greater vigor for the vine, but greatly delaying,
especially in the case of high walls, the production of a screen of
foliage.

Next: Pruning And Training Muscadine Grapes
Previous: Classification Of Methods Of Training The Grape In Eastern America

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