WORK IN THE VINE-HOUSE FOR FEBRUARY.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume VI, Issue 1, 15 January 1913, Page 74

WORK IN THE VINE-HOUSE FOR FEBRUARY.

S. F. Anderson.

In most of the cool vine-houses in the northern parts of the Dominion Black Hamburgh and Foster’s Seedling will now be ripe, and will require to be kept dry until gathered. Plenty of fresh air may now be admitted. through top and bottom ventilators and doors. All openings should have protection by wire netting of small mesh to keep out the blackbirds and thrushes. A lot of damage may be done to a fine crop in a very short time by neglect of this.

It is at this stage of grape-growing where the advantage of growingvines that ripen their fruit about the same time is manifest. In a house where Gros Colman and Black Hamburgh are. grown together the first is not nearly ripe : it is, in fact, just at the stage when it requires most heat, while the latter should have the conditions of a cool, dry house.

As soon as the fruit from the early-ripening vines has been gathered give them an occasional syringing to keep red spider down, and cultivate the borders to assist late growth. Do no more pinching now, but let the vine have full liberty of 'growth until the leaves begin to fall.

With the late grapes—Gros Colman, Alicante, Golden Queen, and otherscracking of the berries sometimes occurs. ■ This is caused by an unequal supply of moisture, which cannot always be controlled by the grower, heavy rains after a spell of dry weather being often the cause. The best preventive, however, is well-made, thoroughly drained borders, and the control of an ample water-supply. This will afford the best means of regulating the moisture of the borders.

A heavy fall of rain will not then affect them so much, and the best condition will be maintained during dry weather.

Shanking, a more obscure disease than the cracking of . berries, is also a greater trouble with late than with early grapes. It occurs more, however, where the 'soil-conditions are alternately wet and dry than by reason of overcropping, or from a network of vigorous roots pushing into uncongenial soil.

Any diseased berries showing in the bunches should be immediately removed, as they quickly affect others touching them. Some growers take the shoulders off the bunches of Gros Colman when thinning. The result is better-shaped bunches, larger berries, and a reduction of the risk of shanking.

Where new rods are being grown to take place of old, crooked, or those with too many .blind eyes, care, should be taken that they are trained perfectly straight. Pinch the tips of any side shoots, but otherwise allow perfect. freedom of growth. The terminal or main shoot must never be stopped during the growing season. In the winter it can be cut off at the apex of the roof, or at any height required.

All vine-houses' should be provided with tanks, preferably of concrete, proportionate with the area of the house, for the storage of water. These can be supplied by the guttering from the roof. They should be built up level with the eave of the house. The borders can then be watered by a hose from a tap at a level with the surface of the ground. Sufficient gravitation is then provided for delivery equal to the height of the wall of the house ; from below that, of course, it must be pumped.

Lime-sulphur Solution v. Bordeaux Mixture. For prevention of leafcurl on peach and nectarine trees these two mixtures have proved equally good at Ruakura Farm of Instruction, for on trees of the same variety sprayed with each mixture no sign of disease appeared.

The following return, compiled by the Motueka Harbourmaster, Mr. P. G. Moffatt, showing the quantity of fruit exported from the Motueka district in each fifth year since 1877, gives some idea of the development of the fruit industry in that part of the Dominion : 1877, 3,932 bushels ; 1882, 7,494 bushels; 1887, 5,639 bushels; 1892, 19,665 bushels; 1897, 15,236 bushels ; 1902, 48,234 bushels ; 1907, 84,460 bushels.; 1912, 144,086 bushels.— T. W. Kirk.