Читать книгу The Raisin Industry - Gustavus A. Eisen - Страница 45

—Great importance is attached to procuring cuttings from a distance, or in getting new strains. Cuttings from the nearest vineyard are never used, as they are considered to produce inferior vines, and not do as well. To procure cuttings or vines, the old vines are sometimes cut a few inches below the surface of the soil, causing the parent plant to throw off numerous suckers or shoots, which the following winter are separated and used as we do rooted vines here in California. Three or four years will elapse before they come into regular bearing. Some vineyards are produced by grafting the black currant on the wine grape, and many wine vineyards that do not pay are thus transformed into paying raisin vineyards. The grafted vines come into bearing much sooner than those grown from cuttings. The grafting is performed in Zante as follows: The soil is dug away from the main trunk of the old vine to the depth of from twelve to eighteen inches, and the trunk cut off square at the bottom of the pit. Two or three scions are then inserted in the trunk, and made to slightly project above the ground, in no case with more than two or three eyes. Clay is then applied to the joint of the graft, and the trunk slightly covered with leaves, and the hole then filled up with soil. The grafting is done in the spring, and the cuttings must be kept dormant in dark and cool cellars.