Effect of Vegetative Shoot Thinning on Growth, Yield and Bunch Quality of Black Monukka and Red Globe Grape Cultivars

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

 THIS INVESTIGATION was conducted for two successive …….seasons (2010 & 2011) in a private vineyard located at 58 Km of Cairo-Alexandria desert road to study the possibility of improving vegetative growth, yield and bunch quality through the application of shoot thinning on Black Monukka and Red Globe grapevines. The vines were ten-year-old, grown in a sandy loam soil, spaced at 2 X 3 meters apart, irrigated by the drip irrigation system, cane-pruned (6 canes X 12 buds/cane) and trellised by Spanish Parron system. Four treatments were applied before the beginning of bloom as follows, control (untreated vines), removal of four main vegetative shoots, removal of eight main vegetative shoots and removal of twelve main vegetative shoots.
The obtained result showed that all treatments were effective in increasing the number of bunches/vine, average bunch weight and yield. Removal of twelve main vegetative shoots of Black Monukka grapevines and removal of eight main vegetative shoots of Red Globe grapevines improved the physical characteristics of the bunches, physical and chemical properties of berries, morphological characteristics of vegetative growth, leaf content of total chlorophyll and cane content of total carbohydrates as compared with the control.
The microclimate study indicated that removal of twelve main vegetative shoots of Black Monukka and Red Globe grapevines resulted in the highest values of air temperature and light intensity as compared to the untreated vines (control).

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