ISHS Acta Horticulturae 444: III International Symposium on Kiwifruit
EFFECTS OF CROPLOAD ON ANNUAL GROWTH AND DRY MATTER PARTITIONING IN YOUNG KIWI VINES |
| Authors: | C. Xiloyannis, R. Massai, D. Piccotino, M. Raffaelli, M. Bovo |
| Abstract:
Four-year-old (second year of production) ‘Hayward’ vines trained to T-bar and spaced at 4.5 m x 1.5 m were thinned after fruit-set to 4 different croploads: without fruit (NF), severely thinned (ST), medium thinned (MT) and not thinned (NT), corresponding to a progressively increasing fruit-shoot ratio of 0, 0.45, 0.93 and 1.72 respectively. Thinning had little effect on fruit size (only 5 g/fruit between ST and NT), while yield per vine decreased by roughly 6 kg/vine, corresponding to 7.9 MT/ha, between NT and MT and between MT and ST. The presence of fruit induced a noteworthy change in manner of vine growth. At the end of the growing season, the NT treatment showed 19% lower leaf area and total dry weight, excluding fruits, compared to NF. In the latter treatment, 34% of canes were self terminated as compared to 24% in NT. The ratio between the below-ground and above ground parts (g d. w./g. d.w.) was found to be markedly higher (0.59) in NF as compared to NT (0.46) but no differences were found between treatments in the ‘root/leaf area’ ratio. Soluble carbohydrates and starch concentration was noticeably greater in NF than in NT in all vine parts. | |
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