INFLUNCE OF SUMMER PRUNING ON IMPROVING THE RESPONSE OF THOMPSON SEEDLESS GRAPEVINES TO DORMEX APPLICATION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Horticulture Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt.

Abstract

This study was designed to found the effect of summer pruning on improving
the response of Thompson Seedless grapevines to dormex application. Dormex was
sprayed at 4% on 20 january. Summer pruning treatments iduded : head suckering,
pinching the main shoots and topping the laterals. The results showed that dormex
spraying at 4%, either alone or combined with summer pruning, hastened bud burst
by 17 and 16 days compared with the control during the two seasons respectively .
All applications increased the percentage of bud burst, fertility and fruit set . All
treatments also, seemed to be very effective concerning improving vegetative growth
(leaf area) , coefficient of wood ripening, yield as well as physical and chemical
properties of berries compared with the untreated vines. The most effective
treatments were dormex + summer pruning followed by dormex alone. This study
confirmed the benefeit of carrying out summer pruning in combination with dormex for
Thompson Seedless grape cv .