Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Volume LXI
Written by Reşat ESGİCİ, Gültekin ÖZDEMİR, Göksel PEKİTKAN, Konuralp ELİÇİN, Ferhat ÖZTÜRK, Abdullah SESSİZ
Turkey will continue to acting an important role in grape production and raisin exportation in the world because of its large number of grape varieties, favorable ecological conditions and large amount of production areas. Turkey is the one of the gene center of grapevines, for this reason it possesses over 1600 grape varieties. Grapevine varieties are generally harvested by hand; however, the feasibility of using a mechanical harvester is some engineering properties such as physical and mechanical properties must be consideration. In this study, some physical and mechanical properties of grape berries and canes of local variety Şire (Vitis vinifera L. cv.) were determined depend on phenological stages. This research was performed at commercial vineyard in Dicle, the town of Diyarbakır, which is located in the southeastern part of Turkey. Cutting properties were measured by The Lloyd LRX plus materials testing machine. Grape berries length, width, thickness, arithmetic and geometric mean diameter, sphericity, roundness, detachment force (FDF), weight (W), the ratio of FDF/W, skin firmness, total soluble solids content, pH, total acidity and cane of grapevine shearing force, shearing strength, upper yield, shearing energy were determined. The test results indicated that very significant correlations were found between axial dimensions of grape berries, and physical dimensions, mechanical and pomological properties. The ratio of FDF/W decreased depending on phenological stages. Berry weight was lowest at the Veraison (1.60 g). The grape berry skin firmness decreased from 1.174 N to 0.766 N with phenological stages. TSSC values varied from 20.40 to 16.20 %, pH of grape (3.39-3.65) values increased with phenological stages, whereas the total acids were slight changed and reduced from 0.876 to 0.669 %. Cutting properties of Şire grapevine cane has been changed with phenological stages. Shearing force and energy requirement increased with increase internode diameter of canes. Shearing force values changed between 472.38 N and 119.57 N.
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