Leaf Removal: A Tool to Improve Crop Control and Fruit Quality in Vinifera Grapes
- Research Date
- 2015
- Authors
- Paolo Sabbatini, Glen Greiffendorf, Pat Murad, Cristian Paulsen
- Priorities
- Best Practices, Crop Quality, Disease Management
- Crop Categories
- Grapes
- Beverage Categories
- Wine
Cool summers and wet fall in Michigan often limits technological fruit maturity at harvest especially in cultivars prone to cluster-rot. Several important wine grape varieties in Michigan have high susceptibility to harvest season cluster rot (e.g. Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, Pinot gris, Pinot noir, all Vitis vinifera L.). A detrimental characteristic common to all of these varieties is the compactness of the berries held on the cluster rachis. The aim of this work is to determine whether a quantified amount of leaf removal at bloom would reduce fruit set and consequently produce a controlled reduction in cluster compactness. Our study was conducted to 1) verify whether early leaf removal can be consistently used as a tool for controlling cluster bunch rot through reducing cluster compactness on Riesling and determine the effects of leaf removal on grape quality (skin/flesh ratio, color and basic fruit chemistry parameters).
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