573. De Arboribus. Loeb. Much of this is about vineyards. The process for selecting and identifying quality vines for propagation is complex and time consuming. Current vines must be observed for several years to determine which vines are productive not just for one year but for several years in a row. Then these are the ones which are carefully cut and planted in a nursery. But the nursery needs to be in the same kind of soil as the actual vineyard will be located.
The proper kind of tree needs to be grown for the vines to climb on. The best tree for this is the popular, then the elm and then the ash. However circumstances and soil may require some other tree than the popular. Preparation of the soil with burning and allowing the soil to lie fallow for a time; all of this gives some small idea of what was necessary to be done to lay out a vineyard. Columella even advises the reader to be sure to plant the young plant facing the same direction in the vineyard as it was in the nursery. He also talks of grafting. In fact Romans said that a grafted vine, or any tree grafted was more productive than one not grafted. This is a very interesting concept. The description of the grafting process gives an idea of how impressive the Romans were in this area. They knew their plants and what was required to keep productivity high and quality high and what to do if the productivity declined.
Columella ends his discussion about grafting stating that a method exists which allows any tree or vine to be grafted to any tree.
Trenching receives strong emphasis. It appears that this was important for loosening the soil to allow the roots to grow and to trap water, particularly those located on the side of a mountain where water was more scarce.
Sometimes they dug a planting pit 4 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet. Now I have dug some major holes by hand but to think of planting a whole set of trees sounds daunting. He talks repeatedly about the need for manuring and protecting young seedlings.
He recommends that there be significant distance between plants to allow other plants to be grown.
Romans planted numerous nut bearing trees and fruit trees. These are the ones that they are beginning to identify in Roman gardens: walnut, chestnut, pine nut, almond, pear, pomegranate, figs.
Based on what Linda Farrar says in her Ancient Roman Gardening, the care of trenching, digging pits is evident in gardens located in the interior of Roman houses.
In reading Columella it seems that he or maybe the Romans felt that some stress was good for plants to increase durability and productivity.
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