EFFECT OF VINE BUD LOAD ON BUD BEHAVIOR, YIELD, AND CLUSTER CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTUMN ROYAL SEEDLESS GRAPEVINES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Hort. Faculty of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Cairo, Egypt

2 Ministry of Agriculture, C.A. Afforestation and Environment, Egypt

3 Higher Institute for Agric. Co-Operation, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

This study was conducted through the seasons of 2013 and 2014 to determine the optimum bud loads/ vine for Autumn Royal seedless "grapevines. Three years old uniform vines were uniform chosen and pruned to four levels of bud load, namely (32, 42, 52 and 60 buds/ vine). With fruiting spur at 2, 3 and 4 buds per spur
The results showed that the percentage of bursted buds was decreased significantly by increasing bud load /vine in the two seasons of the study. Data also indicated that 42 buds/ vine were more suitable for Autumn Royal seedlessgrapevines to produce good yield and fruit quality. On the other hand, 32 buds/vine or 60 buds/vine were unfavorable science it produced rather clusters.
In addition, pruning Autumn Royal seedless "grapevines to 42buds /vine by leaving 21 spur  with 2 eyes/spur or leaving 14 spur with 3 eyes per spur resulted a high yield and good quality, reduced cluster compactness and reduced shoot berries %,  gave the greatest cluster weight, berry firmness, adherence, T.S.S and anthocyanin content. Increasing bud load increased number of cluster/vine and yield but reduced cluster weight. Vines pruned to 32 buds / vine gave the greatest C/N ratio of the canes. Whereas vines pruned to 60 buds / vine showed higher percent of T.A than the other levels of bud load and cane length.

Keywords