North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

In grapes, the carbohydrates produced by the leaves move down through the
phloem, which is right under the bark and cambium.  Water and nutrients move
up, through the xylem, which makes up most of the wood.  So if you girdle a
grape vine, it can still get water and nutrients up to the vine, keeping it
alive until the girdled area (if not too big) heals over.  Meanwhile, the
carbohydrates have to go somewhere, so they go to the fruit instead of
mostly to the roots, as they would have.  Girdle a vine at bloom time and
SEEDLESS grapes will increase in size and will set more heavily.  Seeded
grapes don't respond as much to girdling.  Girdle within two to three weeks
of ripening and it can speed up ripening.  Girdle the trunk or a cane by
removing a strip 5/16 inch wide down to the wood.  If, after a few minutes,
there is any brown in the girdled area, you missed some phloem and the
girdle won't have any effect - the connection wasn't completely cut.  Go
back and scrape it to the wood.  There are commercial girdling tools -
double bladed knives and "girdling pliers" but I don't know a source. 

Personally, I prefer using a special method of thinning that achieves much
the same goal without cutting the vines.  For THAT you have to get my book
when it comes out.
 
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, unusual fruits, writing, more, at http://www.hevanet.com/lonrom

----------
>From: LONGDISTSHTR <longdistshtr@shtc.net>
>To: nafex@egroups.com
>Subject: [nafex] Girdling Grape Vines
>Date: Thu, Aug 10, 2000, 4:46 PM
>

>Lon, can you go into the process of girdling a little more. I would like
>to try this on a Loomis Muscadine next year. It has always given oodles
>of leaves and even 'tho it is described as having large fruit, I would
>judge mine as medium size. I doubt if girdling has been tried on vitis
>rotundifolia (muscadine) but I would like to give it a try. Loomis has
>excellent taste but if I can get more than one in my mouth at a time, I
>don't consider them large.
>By the way, for those of you lucky enough to be able to raise them, Fry
>out-performs all others here. Triumph bears earliest. Cowart ain't worth
>growing except for pollination. You've got to like fermented native
>grape juice to call these "wine grapes". Give me Liebfraumilch or
>Reisling anyday. Personal preference. But for making yourself sick
>eating in the vineyard on a frosty morn, muscadines are a hedonist's
>delight.
>June Bugs are eating all the figs. In the next life, I'll plant them in
>a net tent 'fore they get big as Magnolia trees. Love to all, Doc
>Lisenby Zone 7.25 SCar.
>
>
>
>
>
>

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