Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXV, Issue 1
Written by Georgeta Mihaela BUCUR
The study was conducted in 2017-2019 in the experimental plantation of the USAMV Bucharest, on the most widespread Romanian grape variety, 'Fetească regală clone 21 Bl’, grafted on the rootstock 'Kober 5 BB’, to monitor how green operations - severe shoot topping and leaf removal above the bunch area - causes an effective delay in the accumulation of sugars in the grapevine berries. The green operations have been performed when berry sugar content reached about 14-15.5°Brix. The severe shoot topping at beginning of veraison increased competition of the lateral shoots, contributed to the delay of grapes maturity. Defoliation consisted in removing 30-40% of the vine leaves located above the grape floor (the most active photosynthetically). The results obtained on the qualitative parameters were compared with the control on which no intervention was applied. During the three years, there were lower accumulations of sugars in the berries at the time of harvesting the grapes, both in the case of severe shoot topping (21.8°Brix) and in leaf removal (21.5°Brix), compared to the control (22.8°Brix).
[Read full article] [Citation]
